Survival for bowel cancer
Around 85 out of 100 people (around 85%) with stage 2 bowel cancer (also called Dukes’ B) will survive their cancer for 5 years or more after they’re diagnosed.
Colorectal (Colon) Cancer
Colon cancer develops from polyps (growths) in your colon’s inner lining. Healthcare providers have screening tests and treatments that detect and remove precancerous polyps. If untreated, colon cancer may spread to other areas of your body. Thanks to these tests, early treatment and new kinds of treatment, fewer people are dying from colon cancer.
Overview
Colon cancer starts as polyps in your colon. It can start in any part of your colon.
What is colon cancer?
Colon (colorectal) cancer starts in your colon (large intestine), the long tube that helps carry digested food to your rectum and out of your body.
Colon cancer develops from certain polyps or growths in the inner lining of your colon. Healthcare providers have screening tests that detect precancerous polyps before they can become cancerous tumors. Colon cancer that’s not detected or treated may spread to other areas of your body. Thanks to screening tests, early treatment and new kinds of treatment, fewer people are dying from colon cancer.
How does this condition affect people?
Your colon wall is made of layers of mucous membrane, tissue and muscle. Colon cancer starts in your mucosa, the innermost lining of your colon. It consists of cells that make and release mucus and other fluids. If these cells mutate or change, they may create a colon polyp.
Over time, colon polyps may become cancerous. (It usually takes about 10 years for cancer to form in a colon polyp.) Left undetected and/or untreated, the cancer works its way through a layer of tissue, muscle and the outer layer of your colon. The colon cancer may also spread to other parts of your body via your lymph nodes or your blood vessels.
Colon cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in people in the U.S. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), men and people assigned male at birth (AMAB) are slightly more likely to develop colon cancer than women and people assigned female at birth (AFAB). Colon cancer affects more people who are Black than people who are members of other ethnic groups or races.
Colon cancer typically affects people age 50 and older. Over the past 15 years, however, the number of people age 20 to 49 with colon cancer has increased by about 1.5% each year. Medical researchers aren’t sure why this is happening.
Symptoms and Causes
Learn the six most common signs of colon cancer.
What are colon cancer symptoms?
You can have colon cancer without having symptoms. If you do have symptoms, you may not be sure if changes in your body are signs of colon cancer. That’s because some colon cancer symptoms are similar to symptoms of less serious conditions. Common symptoms of colon cancer include:
- Blood on or in your stool (poop): Talk to a healthcare provider if you notice blood in the toilet after you poop or after wiping, or if your poop looks dark or bright red. It’s important to remember blood in poop doesn’t mean you have colon cancer. Other things — from hemorrhoids to anal tears to eating beets — may change your poop’s appearance. But it’s always better to check with a healthcare provider any time you notice blood in or on your stool.
- Persistent changes in your bowel habits (how you poop): Talk to a healthcare provider if you have persistent constipation and/or diarrhea, or if you feel as if you still need to poop after going to the bathroom.
- Abdominal (belly) pain: Talk to a healthcare provider if you have belly pain with no known cause, that doesn’t go away or hurts a lot. Many things may cause belly pain, but it’s always best to check with a healthcare provider if you have unusual or frequent belly pain.
- Bloated stomach: Like belly pain, there are many things that may make you feel bloated. Talk to a healthcare provider if your bloated belly lasts for more than a week, gets worse or you have other symptoms like vomiting or blood in or on your poop.
- Unexplained weight loss: This is a noticeable drop in your body weight when you’re not trying to lose weight.
- Vomiting: Talk to a healthcare provider if you’ve been vomiting periodically for no known reason or if you vomit a lot in 24 hours.
- Fatigue and feeling short of breath: These are symptoms of anemia. Anemia may be a sign of colon cancer.
What causes colon cancer?
Like all types of cancer, colon cancer happens when cells grow and divide uncontrollably. All cells in your body are constantly growing, dividing and dying. That’s how your body remains healthy and working as it should. In colon cancer, cells lining your colon and rectum keep growing and dividing even when they’re supposed to die. These cancerous cells may come from polyps in your colon.
Medical researchers aren’t sure why some people develop precancerous colon polyps that become colon cancer. They do know certain risk factors increase people’s chances of developing precancerous polyps and colon cancer.
Those risk factors include certain medical conditions, including inherited conditions, and lifestyle choices. Having one or more risk factors for colon cancer doesn’t mean you’ll develop the condition. It just means you have increased risk. Understanding risk factors may help you decide if you should talk to a healthcare provider about your risk of developing colon (colorectal) cancer.
Lifestyle choices that are risk factors for colon cancer
- Smoking: Using tobacco products, including chewing tobacco and e-cigarettes, increases your risk of developing colon cancer.
- Excessive alcohol use: In general, men and people AMAB should limit beverages containing alcohol to two servings a day. Women and people AFAB should limit beverages containing alcohol to one serving a day. Even light alcohol use can increase your risk of developing cancer.
- Having obesity: Eating high-fat, high-calorie foods may affect your weight and increase your risk of colon cancer.
- Having a diet that includes lots of red meat and processed meat: Processed meat includes bacon sausage and lunchmeat. Healthcare providers recommend you limit red meat and processed meat to two servings a week.
- Not exercising: Any kind of physical activity may reduce your risk of developing colon cancer.
Medical conditions that increase colon cancer risk
- Inflammatory bowel disease: People who have conditions like chronic ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s colitis, which cause inflammation in their colon lining, may have an increased risk of colon cancer. The risk increases if you have inflammatory bowel disease that lasts more than seven years and affects large parts of your colon.
- Inherited conditions: Certain conditions like Lynch syndrome and familial adenomatous polyposis may increase your risk of developing colon cancer. Colon cancer may happen if you inherit a gene that causes cancer.
- A family history of colon and other kinds of cancer: If a close family member has colon cancer, you may have an increased risk of developing the condition. Close family members include your biological parents, siblings and children. Your risk may be higher if any biological family member developed colon cancer before age 45.
- A family history of polyps: If your parent, sibling or child has an advanced polyp, you may have an increased risk of getting colon cancer. An advanced polyp may be a large polyp. Medical pathologists may characterize a polyp as being advanced if they see certain changes in the polyp when they look at it under a microscope that are signs the polyp may contain cancerous cells.
- Many polyps: People with numerous colon polyps — including adenomas, serrated polyps or other types of polyps — often have an increased risk of developing polyps and colon cancer. People may inherit a tendency toward having many colon polyps.
Survival for bowel cancer
Bowel cancer is cancer that starts in the large bowel (colon cancer) or back passage (rectal cancer). It is also known as colorectal cancer.
Survival depends on many factors. No one can tell you exactly how long you will live.
Below are general statistics based on large groups of people. Remember, they can’t tell you what will happen in your individual case.
Your doctor can give you more information about your own outlook (prognosis). You can also talk about this with the Cancer Research UK information nurses on freephone 0808 800 4040, from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Survival by stage
No UK-wide statistics are available for different stages of bowel (colorectal) cancer. Survival statistics are available for each stage of bowel cancer in England. These figures are for people diagnosed between 2016 and 2020.
Stage 1
Around 90 out of 100 people (around 90%) with stage 1 bowel cancer (also called Dukes’ A) will survive their cancer for 5 years or more after they’re diagnosed.
Stage 2
Around 85 out of 100 people (around 85%) with stage 2 bowel cancer (also called Dukes’ B) will survive their cancer for 5 years or more after they’re diagnosed.
Stage 3
65 out of 100 people (65%) with stage 3 bowel cancer (also called Dukes’ C) will survive their cancer for 5 years or more after they’re diagnosed.
Stage 4
Around 10 out of 100 people (around 10%) with stage 4 bowel cancer (also called Dukes’ D) will survive their cancer for 5 years or more after they’re diagnosed.
If the cancer has spread into the liver and the surgeon can remove it, more than 40 out of 100 people (more than 40%) will survive their cancer for 5 years or more after their operation.
Further information
You can view survival figures for Wales and Northern Ireland on our early diagnosis pages. Survival statistics for Scotland are not available.
Where this information comes from
Cancer survival in England, cancers diagnosed 2016 to 2020, followed up to 2021
NHS England
These figures are for people diagnosed in England between 2016 and 2020.
These statistics are for net survival. Net survival estimates the number of people who survive their cancer rather than calculating the number of people diagnosed with cancer who are still alive. In other words, it is the survival of cancer patients after taking into account that some people would have died from other causes if they had not had cancer.
Surgical management and outcomes of colorectal cancer liver metastases
E J A Morris and others
British Journal of Surgery Year – 2010 Volume Number – 97 Part Number – 7 Pages – 1110-8
Survival for all stages of bowel cancer
Generally for people with bowel cancer in England:
- around 80 out of 100 people (around 80%) survive their cancer for 1 year or more
- almost 60 out of 100 people (almost 60%) survive their cancer for 5 years or more
- almost 55 out of 100 people (almost 55%) survive their cancer for 10 years or more
Where this information comes from
1 and 5 year survival statistics
Cancer survival in England, cancers diagnosed 2016 to 2020, followed up to 2021
NHS England
These figures are for people diagnosed in England between 2016 and 2020.
10 year survival statistics
Cancer survival by stage at diagnosis for England, 2019
Office for National Statistics
1, 5 and 10 year statistics are for net survival. Net survival estimates the number of people who survive their cancer rather than calculating the number of people diagnosed with cancer who are still alive. In other words, it is the survival of cancer patients after taking into account that some people would have died from other causes if they had not had cancer.
What affects survival?
Your outlook depends on the stage of the cancer when it was diagnosed. This means how far it has spread through the layers of the bowel and whether it has spread.
The type of cancer and grade of the cancer cells can also affect your survival. Grade means how abnormal the cells look under the microscope.
Your general health and fitness also affect survival, the fitter you are, the better you may be able to cope with your cancer and treatment.
Some bowel cancers make a protein called carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). People with high CEA levels before treatment may have a worse outlook.
Bowel cancer can sometimes cause a blockage in the bowel (bowel obstruction). If this happens, you have a small risk of developing a hole in the wall of the bowel. This is called perforation. People with bowel cancer who have an obstruction or perforation of the bowel have a worse outlook.
About these statistics
The terms 1 year survival and 5 year survival don’t mean that you will only live for 1 or 5 years.
The NHS, other health organisations, and researchers collect information. They watch what happens to people with cancer in the years after their diagnosis. 5 years is a common time point to measure survival. But some people live much longer than this.
5 year survival is the number of people who have not died from their cancer within 5 years after diagnosis.
More statistics
For more in-depth information about survival and bowel cancer, go to our Cancer Statistics section.
References
- Cancer survival by stage at diagnosis for England, 2019
Office for National Statistics - Surgical management and outcomes of colorectal cancer liver metastases
E J A Morris and others
British Journal of Surgery Year – 2010 Volume Number – 97 Part Number – 7 Pages – 1110-8
