Cancer screening

People with Lynch syndrome have a higher chance of developing bowel, womb and sometimes ovarian cancer. They may also have a slightly higher chance of developing other cancers including stomach (gastric) cancer, pancreatic cancer, small bowel cancer and urinary tract cancer.

Cancer screening is aimed at spotting early signs of cancer in people without any symptoms. If cancer is found at an early stage, treatment is more likely to be successful.

Guidelines for screening for families with Lynch

Click here to see the current UK Cancer Genetics Group guidelines for Lynch. There are separate guidelines for each gene. You can ask your genetics service if you are not sure which one is relevant to your family.

Screening for bowel cancer

Colonoscopy is an effective way of screening for bowel cancer. People with Lynch syndrome are encouraged to have a colonoscopy every 2 years. Please click below for more information about colonoscopy:

Screening for womb cancer and ovarian cancer

There are currently no effective ways of screening for womb cancer or ovarian cancer - there is no evidence that screening for womb or ovarian cancer helps save lives. This is because it is not easy to spot early cancers in the ovaries with screening and most cancers of the womb are spotted early without screening because of abnormal bleeding.

For a more detailed explanation of why there is no national screening programme for ovarian cancer, please go to the Ovacome website.

Screening for gastric (stomach) cancer

There are currently no reliable ways of screening for gastric cancer. The screening tests available do not have a good rate of detecting cancers at an early stage.

However, if you have Lynch, one-off screening for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is recommended. H. pylori is a bacterium which can be found in the stomach and is associated with an increased chance of developing ulcers and gastric cancer. Your GP can do a simple test to check for H. Pylori infection and treat with antibiotics if needed.

Skin examinations

A baseline dermatology skin review may be offered to some people with Lynch who have a personal or family history of a sebaceous skin tumour (sebaceous adenomas and carcinomas) or keratoacanthoma (neoplasm of the hair follicle). Families with Lynch and these skin tumours have Muir Torre syndrome.

Other cancer screening

No other screening is specifically recommended for families with Lynch outside of a research study, such as the IMPACT study of prostate cancer screening and the EUROPAC study of pancreatic cancer screening.

You should remain aware of symptoms and report these to your GP.

You should still respond to any routine invitations for cancer screening, such as smear tests for cervical cancer screening and mammograms for breast cancer screening.