Cancer Research UK will carry out a study to identify patients with early signs of bowel cancer by checking their medication history.
This project aims to identify seven other cancers at an early stage, when treatment is more likely to be effective.
Doctors across the world are baffled by the new trend of bowel cancer striking younger people in their 20s, 30s and 40s.
In the UK, bowel cancer is the third most common cancer, with around 32,000 cases diagnosed every year.
The Cancer Research study will focus on eight cancers, including bowel, pancreatic, stomach, ovarian, lung, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Researchers will study the prescription data to identify common treatments given to people before being diagnosed with the disease.
They will access the data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank at Swansea University.
The researchers believe that changes in prescription of a patient could alert the GPs to consider a cancer investigation.
Earlier studies in Denmark had suggested that patients who had GP appointments for haemorrhoids were more likely to be later diagnosed with bowel cancer.
Many of the symptoms are often dismissed by people as digestive issues or piles, and they often seek over-the-counter treatment before seeing a GP.
An early diagnosis can be life-changing, with more than 90 per cent of bowel cancer patients surviving for five years or more.
This rate shrinks once the disease spreads, and by stage four, it is down to 10 per cent.
