Have large increases in fast track referrals improved bowel cancer outcomes in UK?

UK Department of Health policies to improve survival from bowel cancer through GP referral guidelines and public awareness campaigns have increased urgent referrals to hospitals. This has led to an unsustainable demand for colonoscopy and CT colonography without evidence of significant clinical benefit. These policies could be improved by more precise stratification of the risk of having bowel cancer to achieve prompt, rather than earlier, diagnosis while avoiding over-referral and investigation of patients with transient symptoms from benign conditions.