Long wait times for cancer diagnosis worries health advocates
Danielle Nicholas waited for eight months to be told that yes, she had cancer.
The single mother and nursing student from Taringa was just 33 when she went to her doctor, a warning ringing in her ears.
Her university lecturer had told her class that any blood in faeces was "not right", and needed to be checked.
Ms Nicholas heard those words over and over in her head, knowing that for months she had been seeing blood in her own faeces.
Finally, she went to her doctor, and was referred for a colonoscopy to check if there was any hint of cancer.
"My GP was great, she reassured me I wouldn’t have cancer, I was too young, I was 33 at the time, people at my age don’t get cancer," Ms Nicholas said.
But for three months, Ms Nicholas didn't hear anything, until finally she called her GP back and was given a second referral.
Living with the anxiety of not knowing if she had cancer or not, Ms Nicholas said she endured months of trying to keep calm and keep her life as normal as possible.
A second mix-up with Ms Nicholas not receiving notification that she'd been booked in for a colonoscopy meant she missed out again, but in tears on the phone to the hospital, she was rebooked for the next day.
Eight months after she first overcame her embarrassment and spoke to her doctor, Ms Nicholas went into hospital for the colonoscopy.
"When I woke up they told me, yeah, they had found a large tumor and it was covering a lot of the bowel wall," she said.
"From there the next step would be a CT scan to determine if it had spread, and determine on the results of that whether to do surgery."
Finally, she went into surgery to remove the tumour, and woke up with the good news that no cancer had been found elsewhere.
Research from Bowel Cancer Australia shows that a small number of Queenslanders were left waiting more than three months for a colonoscopy to diagnose bowel cancer, well above the recommended 30-day time frame.
A colonoscopy is critical to confirm if a patient has bowel cancer, meaning many people were left uncertain if they have cancer or not.
“Research indicates waiting longer than 120 days for a colonoscopy following a positive screen or for people experiencing symptoms are associated with poorer outcomes,” Bowel Cancer Australia chief executive Julien Wiggins said.
“A colonoscopy is not a procedure many would queue for, and yet many are in the thousands, which creates anxiety for patients and their families, as they wait to learn their fate.”
Now, almost a year cancer-free, Ms Nicholas said it was still a struggle to keep life as normal, as she recovered from the crippling anxiety and uncertainty of knowing whether her cancer diagnosis meant she had to get her affairs in order, or whether she and her daughter would have years of life together.
"I owe my GP my life, because she took me seriously the first time," Ms Nicholas said.
Between 2011 and 2014, the Ipswich local government area had a 13.6 per cent death rate per 100,000 people from bowel cancer, the second highest in the state behind Mount Isa.
The Lockyer Valley and Somerset both reported a 12.7 per cent death rate, followed by Goondiwindi on 11.5 per cent - part of a total 4097 deaths in Queensland from bowel cancer between 2011-2016.
Nearly 12,000 Queensland residents received a positive screening test for bowel cancer last year.
Bowel Cancer Australia says a greater funding investment at both a state and federal level is needed to reduce wait times and improve the chances for recovery.
“People who receive a positive screen or experience bowel cancer symptoms must receive a timely follow-up colonoscopy, or the opportunity for early detection is lost,” colorectal surgeon Graham Newstead said.
“We know 90 per cent of bowel cancer cases can be successfully treated if detected early.”
Health Minister Steven Miles said the state government had committed $160 million over four years for the Queensland Endoscopy Action Plan, after identifying the rising waiting times for some patients.
"The plan aims to reduce the number of people waiting longer than is clinically recommended for a colonoscopy, regardless of where they live," Mr Miles said.
"The plan will see 50,000 more endoscopies, which includes colonoscopies, available and will help reduce the incidence of bowel cancer in Queenslanders."
People living in rural and retirement areas are most likely to be struck by the disease, with the federal government keen to see a 15 per cent increase in the use of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program over the next two years.
Mr Wiggins said an “ongoing commitment” to ensuring timely colonoscopies were available in Queensland was needed.
“We need the Queensland Government to commit significant funds for diagnostic colonoscopy if we are to effectively detect and treat Australia’s second deadliest cancer,” he said.
In 2017-18, Queensland saw an 8 per cent increase in the number of endoscopies performed, reducing the wait lists for an edoscopy from 11,000 in late 2016 to under 4000 at the end of April this year.
Mr Miles said the federal government needed to match the state's commitment to increasing funding for bowel cancer screening.