This makes it easier to do something about it, and patients have a better chance of surviving the disease, it reports Integrated Cancer Center Netherlands (IKNL).
Population survey
Bowel cancer has been part of the population screening since 2014. People aged 55 to 75 receive an invitation for a test. In the first years there was an increase in the number of tumors discovered in the colon and rectum. These tumors were found before people had complaints, and were therefore still easy to treat.
Polyps were also removed before they became tumors. As a result, the number of intestinal tumors discovered has been decreasing since 2016.
Before colon cancer the population surveys less than 20 percent of the tumors found were in the most favorable phase, stage I. Since the large-scale checks, this has risen to more than 30 percent.
Can no longer be cured
The most unfavorable phase for intestinal tumors, stage IV, actually dropped from more than a quarter to more than 15 percent. In stage IV, the tumor has spread and the patient can no longer be cured.
Of the people who were found to have colon cancer in 2010, 61 percent were still alive after five years. This has risen to 71 percent for people diagnosed in 2017.
Every year, approximately 9,000 people are diagnosed with a colon tumor. There are also approximately 3,000 diagnoses of rectal cancer every year.
2024-03-11 06:44:42
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