Need for early detection of colorectal cancer urged

A group of 40 medical consultants have stressed the importance of early detection of colon cancer in a bid to curb the rising rates of the disease among men and women.
The consultants, specialized in colorectal cancer, in a workshop organized in Riyadh on Sunday proposed a national project on protective and curative mechanisms of colorectal cancer cases.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Sharm, head of the Oncology Department and colon tumor consultant at King Fahd Medical City in Riyadh, said that the control and prevention programs for cancer are one of the important global trends of modern health systems.
Such a group of diseases has its social and economic impact on the community where a cancer patient’s treatment annually costs approximately SR1million. The early detection of this disease will help in saving lives and improving the patient’s quality of life, he said.
Al-Sharm warned that colon cancer spreads highly in the Kingdom, even at early ages between 20 and 30 years. He said recovery from colon cancer, if dealt with in its early stages, exceeds 90 percent; the problems lie in the late detection and stages of the disease, where the cure rate may not exceed 5 percent.
According to an earlier report, cases of colorectal cases in the Kingdom surged by 135 percent in the decade between 2001-2011.
The number of cases was 438 in 2001, but it reached a staggering 1,033 in 2011, Dr. Qasim Al-Qasabi, CEO of King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, said.