Outliving colorectal cancer

Abstract

"I n Canada in 2007, about 20 460 new cases of colorectal cancer will be diagnosed and 8700 people will die from this disease.1 About half would live if this country had a more robust and coherent approach to early detection and treatment. Unlike lung cancer, another big killer, colon cancer is easy to detect in its early stage, when it is most often premalignant. And unlike early detection in breast and prostate cancer, early detection in colorectal cancer, especially in the precancerous adenoma stage, routinely leads to excision and cure. Furthermore, if colorectal cancer is detected early, the mortality is low, with 90% of patients surviving 5 years."