Rotorua cancer survivor Matthew Keogan - pictured in 2023 - was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in 2021. Photo / Andrew Warner
Rotorua cancer survivor Matthew Keogan - pictured in 2023 - was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in 2021. Photo / Andrew Warner
A Rotorua father who survived stage 4 bowel cancer says the eligibility age for bowel cancer screening tests should be lowered to 35 to “save a lot more lives”.
Matthew Keogan was 49 when he was diagnosed in 2021. He was told to get his affairs in order and saygoodbye to his family as he might only live another three to six months.
But after chemotherapy and immunotherapy with pembrolizumab (Keytruda), he made a miraculous recovery.
Keogan told the Rotorua Daily Post this week he had not had treatment for 12 months and was in remission.
Keogan has joined Bowel Cancer New Zealand’s call for the Government to lower the eligibility age from 60 to 45 - a 2023 election pledge made by National’s Christopher Luxon to match Australia’s eligibility age of 45.
Bowel Cancer New Zealand has presented the Government with a “clinically backed, affordable proposal” to protect 1 million more New Zealanders by lowering the screening age to 45 for all, and to 35 for Māori and Pasifika who faced higher risk at younger ages, a Bowel Cancer NZ statement said.
A 13,000-signature supporting petition was before Parliament.
The first “significant” step was lowering the age from 60 to 58, “as funding and access to additional colonoscopy resource becomes available,” Brown said at the time.
Matthew Keogan says he has been 'cured' of his stage 4 bowel cancer after taking Keytruda. Photo / Andrew Warner
Keogan, 53, said he had met a lot of people in their 30s with bowel cancer.
He said “more and more” people were being diagnosed in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, debunking the idea that cancer was “an old people’s disease”.
Keogan said he would like to see the eligibility age lowered to 45 as the Government had signalled but believed it should eventually be 35 for everyone.
Huskinson said screening was a simple, cost-effective solution that saved lives “and the Government must act now”.
Minister of Health Simeon Brown said the Government was committed to lowering the bowel cancer screening age to 45 to match Australia. Photo / Alex Burton
Brown said the Government had committed to lowering the bowel cancer screening age “over time” as Health NZ increased its delivery of colonoscopies. Work was happening towards “further reductions”.
Brown said lowering the age to 58 and doing targeted campaigns for Māori and Pacific peoples would prevent 1015 colorectal cancers and save 720 lives in the next 25 years.
Initiatives for Māori and Pacific peoples included targeted promotional and engagement activities, within general practices, online educational resources, and facilities for people to return test kits, he said.
Brown said officials’ advice indicated achieving the 60% participation target for Māori and Pacific communities would prevent 244 more colorectal cancer cases and 154 deaths in 25 years compared to current participation levels. In August, officials said those were 49.1% for Māori and 38% for Pacific Peoples.
