The Moondance Bowel Cancer Project schools initiative.

BACKGROUND: The 5-year survival rate for bowel cancer in Wales is poor and lags behind the rest of the UK. The aim of the pilot phase of the Moondance Schools Initiative was to develop, deliver and assess a bowel cancer learning module for secondary school students in South Wales. Ultimately, we aim to introduce this programme into the National Curriculum across Wales. METHODS: Two programmes regarding bowel cancer and screening were designed and delivered to a cohort of secondary school pupils in South Wales. This involved interactive teaching with patients and clinicians, practical sessions and live-streamed videos of bowel cancer surgery. Feedback regarding the events and bowel screening was collected from students and their families. RESULTS: The programmes were delivered to 185 secondary school students and feedback was extremely positive. The students delivered a live event at the end of the programme to demonstrate their learning to their families and invited guests. Feedback from family members revealed that 100% of respondents were more likely to take a bowel screening test as a result of attending the event. CONCLUSION: This project established that a pilot to create young bowel screening ambassadors is feasible and was positively received by students, their families and the local community. Future work will disseminate the programme further and correlate changes in bowel screening participation in the local area as a result of these events.

The ELISA system for measuring antibody reactive to Fusobacterium nucleatum in the sera of patients with chronic periodontitis.

Humoral IgG, IgA and IgM responses to three typed oral strains of F. nucleatum were examined in patients with chronic periodontitis and in individuals with clinically healthy gingiva. Attempts were made to isolate F. nucleatum from either the pathologic gingival crevices or healthy sulci in this study. Higher levels of IgG and IgA reactive to all three strains were observed in the chronic periodontitis patients; however, there were no differences between the IgM levels in the diseased and healthy individuals. Immunodiffusion studies with rabbit antiserum and adsorption studies of the human sera demonstrated a sharing of antigenic determinants by the F. nucleatum strains. F. nucleatum strains were isolated from 14 of the 15 individuals in the study.

Antibody reactive with Peptostreptococcus micros in the sera of patients with periodontal disease.

Subgingival plaque samples were cultured for the isolation of Peptostreptococcus micros from individuals with and without chronic periodontitis. Humoral antibody from each person reacted with P. micros in an indirect fluorescent-antibody test, but not all of the sera reacted in a passive hemolysis test. No correlations were observed between the presence of antibody reactive with P. micros and the isolation of P. micros or the gingival health of the individual.