Disease that kills 16,000 a year

ALTHOUGH bowel cancer is the UK’s second biggest cancer killer after lung cancer, it is actually very treatable if diagnosed early.

Each year almost 41,000 people in the UK are found to have bowel cancer and the disease causes 16,000 deaths. More than eight in ten cases are aged 60 and over, but it can affect people of any age.

For a proportion of patients, the disease ‘runs in the family’ with genetic factors increasing the risk.

The risk rises with a diet that is heavy in red and processed meat including bacon, sausages, cold meat and pate, and is also low in fibre.

Smokers, heavy drinkers and the obese are also more likely to develop it. The chances of a patient dying from bowel cancer will soon be half what they were 20 years ago.

Estimates by Macmillan Cancer Research show that by the end of the decade, 61 per cent of sufferers will beat bowel cancer.

In 1992, only 33 per cent of those diagnosed with the disease lived for at least five years – the measure of survival for cancer patients.

Earlier diagnosis has helped boost survival rates, but there have also been major advances in surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Bowel cancer patients may also receive other targeted therapies if the disease has spread to other parts of the body.