Bowel Cancer Australia has released a new report in which five leading cancer specialists argue that it is drastically underfunded.

Bowel cancer has a higher mortality rate than breast cancer, but gets nowhere near the same amount of government research money.

The advocacy group says in the past eight years, $31.5 million has been spent on breast care nurses, $7 million for prostate cancer support services but nothing for bowel cancer specialist support.

The report says that in the past decade, bowel cancer researchers have received 40 per cent less funding than those looking at breast cancer, which has a higher survival rate.

The National Health and Medical Research Council says bowel cancer applications have historically been more successful than breast or prostate cancer applications, but the council has received significantly fewer applications for research on bowel cancer.

Co-author of the Bowel Cancer Australia report, oncologist Associate Professor Peter Gibbs, told ABC reporters that “cancer specialists don't feel [bowel cancer] gets the due recognition that it deserves”.

“[It is] often a third or less of funding received for bowel cancer research compared with other major cancer types.”

NHMRC says it funds “only the very best Australian research and does not allocate specific amounts of funding to particular diseases or illnesses”.

A copy of the report and other information is available at Bowel Cancer’s Australia’s website.