The fight against colorectal cancer

Canada’s mortality rate from colorectal cancer is in large part due to Canadian policy failures in terms of adequate prevention and screening, say Dr Barkun and Dr Flegel. As a result, the percentage of at-risk patients who are screened is only 23.5% in Canada compared to 62.9% in the USA. This means that Canadian patients often receive treatment at an advanced stage of the disease, which greatly reduces their chances for success.

Dr Barkun and Dr Flegel point out that effective screening tests do exist; when administered regularly, they are an easy way to prevent the disease from developing. In fact, malignant tumours are almost always preceded by benign polyps that can be easily detected by searching stools for blood or through colonoscopy or CT colonography. Research is currently being done on other detection methods that are even more advanced.

Both patients and practitioners must be educated about the importance of colorectal cancer screening if this situation is to be corrected. A proactive education program that includes all those affected must therefore be established nationally.

Media Contact

Isabelle Kling EurekAlert!

All latest news from the category: Health and Medicine

This subject area encompasses research and studies in the field of human medicine.

Among the wide-ranging list of topics covered here are anesthesiology, anatomy, surgery, human genetics, hygiene and environmental medicine, internal medicine, neurology, pharmacology, physiology, urology and dental medicine.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors