Yorkshire Post

LOVERS of black pudding could be wrongly diagnosed with a common cancer, doctors have discovered.

In tests carried out in Bury, Lancashire, four out of 10 people who had eaten a 7oz black pudding tested positive for bowel cancer. The delicacy, a combination of congealed pigs' blood, fat and rusk encased in a length of intestine, is closely related to German blutwurst, French boudin noir and Spanish morcilla.

But doctors, writing in today's British Medical Journal, warn that its popularity in Bury, which they claim is the black-pudding capital of the world, could significantly interfere with a screening test for bowel cancer.

A survey of a further 100 people in the town revealed two-thirds enjoyed the speciality, which would mean more than twice as many people than expected could be wrongly feared to have the condition.

Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of death from the disease, which claims 20,000 lives a year in Britain.

Tests for the condition aim to detect gastro-intestinal bleeding but analysis of samples could be affected by ingredients in black pudding. Those found to be at risk from the cancer go on to have a colonoscopy, where a camera is inserted into the bowel for surgeons to carry out an examination and remove sample tissues.

The researchers, led by Neil Haslam, a consultant gasteroenterologist at the Royal Preston Hospital, say the findings could have implications for a national screening programme for bowel cancer. This is expected to be introduced in future for people in the age group 45-74 on the same lines as other screening regimes for breast and cervical cancer in an effort to make an early diagnosis of the disease, which is often too advanced for effective treatment once symptoms appear.

But the team estimate in a town the size of Bury that the number of false positives caused by black pudding could more than double from 1,200 to 3,100, wasting resources and causing people unnecessary worry. Instead they recommend for those people undergoing tests, the delicacy should be taken off the menu.

19 December 2002

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2002

Answers

Any doctor should know that people are supposed to lay off certain foods, including red meat, for a time before a bowel cancer test.

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2002

I think they question is how far in advance of the test should they stop eating it.

Frankly, it sounds truly gross. Like something to eat when there is no real food around.

yuck.

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2002

And you eat hot dogs, do ya? Sausage? Bologna?

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2002

actually, I can't remember the last time I ate a hotdog. Used to eat them everyday. Also used to eat sausage pizza, but now I like the ham instead, or chicken. never liked bologna. it was a staple of life for a while, but that was a long while ago, and short, too.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2002