April is bowel cancer awareness month, and here are the main statistics associated with bowel cancer in the UK.
- Bowel cancer is the UK’s second biggest cancer killer – every half an hour someone dies of the disease. Each year around 16,000 people die of bowel cancer.
- In the UK around 41,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year. Around 110 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer every day, that’s someone every 15 minutes.
- Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK.
- Bowel cancer affects both men and women.
- If diagnosed early, more than 90% of bowel cancer cases can be treated successfully. However, currently only 15% of cases are diagnosed at stage 1.
- Five year survival rates for bowel cancer have doubled over the last 40 years.
- The majority (95%) of bowel cancer cases occur in people over 50, but it can affect anyone of any age. #never2young
- Your lifetime risk of developing bowel cancer is 1 in 16. For men it’s 1 in 14 and for women 1 in 19.
