A new study on bowel cancer in New Zealand shows patients in the UK and Australia are more likely be be treated sooner than patients here.

The study - which is known as the PIPER project - is a three year investigation into the management of bowel cancer, which kills 12-hundred New Zealanders a year.

It's the largest and most comprehensive undertaken in New Zealand.

It's found 30 percent of New Zealand patients first learn they have the disease when they turn up to a hospital emergency department, comparing to around 20 percent of people in the UK being detected this way.

In addition, only 60 percent of New Zealand patients with bowel cancer which had spread to nearby lymph nodes had received chemotherapy.  An Australian study found 74 percent of similar patients had received this therapy. 

Lead investigator Professor Michael Findlay says it shows that early detection could improve the outcomes for bowel cancer patients.