The Prevalence of Bowel Cancer and Other Disorders
Bowel cancer affects some 35,000 people a year in the UK, and despite being one of the easiest cancers to cure, of these people only half will still be living up to 5 years after diagnosis. The main reason for this is that very often diagnosis is left too late. The other is that, in comparison with other cancers such as breast, bowel cancer has not received the attention in terms of translational research .
Bowel problems by their very nature are embarrassing and usually kept quiet, despite causing an enormous amount of distress to the sufferer. Far too many people 'suffer in silence' the symptoms of, for example, faecal incontinence, a large proportion of whom are women who have suffered complications either during or some time after childbirth. The social and psychological effects on these individuals can be devastating.
In the UK alone, around 100,000 people each year, from new born babies to the elderly will need to be fitted with a colostomy (bag) as a result of surgery for bowel cancer, another bowel disease or disorder of function.
Read more about this topic: Bowel & Cancer Research
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