Melbourne University Professor John Hopper has called for a rethink about cancer screening, saying the current system centred on a family history of the disease is imprecise, wastes resources and unduly worries people.
Prof Hopper says studies in the UK and Australia have shown that only 10 to 15 per cent of women who were tested for breast cancer, because they had a family history of the disease, were found to carry the faulty gene which causes cancer.
To better target cancer screening should test the tumours of young people who develop the disease, the academic from Melbourne University's School of Population Health said.
If the cancer is caused by an inherited genetic fault, other family members can then be screened to see if they share the rogue gene.
Such a scheme could halve deaths caused by bowel cancer, he said.
"You want to get to people before they get the disease, people who carry the mutation but don't know about it, and family history has turned out not to be the best way to find whether you carry the mutation," he said.
"With colorectal cancer if you identify a mutation carrier and they go through a proper screening protocol you can halve their chances of developing the cancer, and halve the number of deaths.
"We can really make a big difference."
The same approach to screening could also be used with breast and other cancers, he said.
"We can work with patients to help prevent them developing new cancers, or at least detect them at an early stage, and we can arm their families with the knowledge to help save lives," he said.
