Incidence & Prevalence of Colorectal Cancer

By Puneet Singh Cheema, MD, HealthEast Cancer Care Medical Director

Cancer of the colon and rectum (colorectal cancer) is the third most common type of cancer diagnosed in both men and women (excluding skin cancers). It is third only to prostate and lung cancer in men and breast and lung cancer in women.

The American Cancer Society estimates that about 108,070 new cases of colon cancer (53,760 in men and 54,310 in women and 40,740 new cases of rectal cancer (23,490 in men and 17,250 in women) will be diagnosed in 2008. It is expected to cause about 49,960 deaths (24,260 men and 25, 700 women) in 2008.

Most cases of colon cancer begin as a small noncancerous (benign) clump of cells called adenomatous polyps, and over time, some of these progress to colon cancers. The estimated time it takes for a benign polyp to turn cancerous is about 5 to 7 years. This fact lends colon cancer to effective screening modalities to detect and remove polyps before they had chance to become advanced cancer or even before they had chance to develop cancer at all. Effective screening tools, if applied appropriately, can prevent a majority of colon and rectal cancers or detect them at an earlier stage where they are rendered curable by surgery alone.

Next page: Colorectal Cancer Screening