Health charity Maag Lever Darm Stichting (MLDS) has called on the cabinet to reduce the age for bowel cancer screening from 55 to 50, saying it could save 150 lives a year.

Spain, France and Britain are already following the World Health Organisation’s guideline to start bowel cancer screening from age 50 but the Netherlands lagged behind because of the cost and a lack of capacity to carry out colonoscopies, Mariël Croo, director of the MLDS, told broadcaster NOS.

However, there is now enough capacity and early diagnoses will help keep treatment costs down, she said.

“Some 700 people between 50 and 55 are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year and in two-thirds of cases the cancer has spread. Not only do 150 people die but others have to undergo radical treatment which leaves them with serious damage,” she said.

Some 12,000 people in the Netherlands are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year. Most are over 50 but, according to research by the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital, which specialises in cancer treatment, the number of bowel cancer diagnoses in people between 18 and 50 is growing rapidly.

Alcohol consumption, a diet of red meat and processed food and obesity are all linked to bowel cancer.

Caught early, bowel cancer can be treated successfully. Preventive screening, which takes place every two years, would have helped Lisa Seij who was younger than 55 when she was finally diagnosed following years of misunderstood symptoms.

“I had been ill for a long time and no one understood, including doctors,” she told the broadcaster. “The age for screening has to come down. If it is found during a routine test in a hospital it could be too late,” she said.

Croon, who presented a petition signed by 50,000 people to parliament on Tuesday, said she was optimistic about MPs’ willingness to table a motion to reduce the screening age. “The fact that so many people signed the petition in a very short time shows that many people think this is an important issue,” she said.