Written by Professor Ronan Cahill, Professor of Surgery, School of Medicine, University College Dublin
Colorectal cancer is the commonest solid organ cancer that affects both genders. For context, there were 2,819 people diagnosed with this disease in 2020 versus 3,890 men with prostate cancer and 3,704 (mostly) women with breast cancer while 2,573 people were diagnosed with lung cancer. A recent seven country study in the Lancet using data from 21 population-based cancer registries in Australia, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK showed overall declining or stable incidences for both colon and rectal cancer. Overall the risk of colon and rectal cancer has increased among more recent birth cohorts with higher numbers now presenting under the age of 50.
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