Definition.

Risk factors and Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer

 What is Colorectal Cancer?
Colorectal cancer is cancer that occurs in the colon or
rectum, the colon is the large intestine or large bowel. The
rectum is the passageway that connects the colon to the anus.
Sometimes abnormal growths, called polyps, form in the colon
or rectum. Over time, some polyps may turn into cancer.
Screening tests can find polyps so they can be removed before
turning into cancer. Screening also helps find colorectal cancer
at an early stage when treatment works best.

 Risk Factors
oThe risk of getting colorectal cancer increases as one gets older.

oOther risk factors include:

1. Having Inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.
2. Having a personal or family history of colorectal cancer or colorectal polyps.
3. Having A genetic syndrome such as familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP)external
icon or hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (Lynch syndrome).

o Lifestyle factors that may contribute to an increased risk of colorectal cancer include
1. Lack of regular physical activity.
2. A diet low in fruit and vegetables.
3. A low-fiber and high-fat diet, or a diet high in processed meats.
4. Overweight and obesity.
5. Alcohol consumption.
6. Tobacco use.

 Epidemiology
Colorectal cancer is an important public health problem: there are nearly one million
new cases of colorectal cancer diagnosed world-wide each ear and half a million deaths.
It was recently reported that in the US, colorectal cancer was the most frequent form of
cancer among persons aged 75 years and older. Given that most cancers occur in elder
 people and with the ageing of the population in mind, this observation gives further
impetus to investigating prevention and treatment strategies among this subgroup of the
population.

Colorectal cancer is not uniformly fatal although there are large differences in survival
according to stage of disease. In advanced colorectal cancer in which curative resection
is possible, 5-year survival in Dukes’ B is 45% which drops to 30% in Dukes’ C. Five-
year survival in resected Dukes’ A is around 80% and survival following simple
resection of an adenomatous pedunculated polyp containing carcinoma in situ (or severe
dysplasia) or intramucosal carcinoma is generally close to 100%. It is estimated that
there are, however, still nearly half-million deaths from colorectal cancer annually.

References:

1. Boyle, P. and Leon, M., 2002. Epidemiology of colorectal cancer. British Medical Bulletin, 64(1), pp.1-25.
2. Cdc.gov. 2021. Colorectal (Colon) Cancer | CDC. [online] Available at:
<https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/colorectal/>
3. Johnson, C., Wei, C., Ensor, J., Smolenski, D., Amos, C., Levin, B. and Berry, D., 2013. Meta-analyses of
colorectal cancer risk factors. Cancer Causes & Control, 24(6), pp.1207-1222.
4. Marley, A. and Nan, H., 2016. Epidemiology of colorectal cancer. International journal of molecular
epidemiology and genetics.