Colon cancer can be prevented in 90% of cases, but few are controlled

Although 90% of cases of colon cancer can be prevented, the disease weighs on the lives of 20 people in the country every day, while 13,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. These are the main data disseminated by specialists to raise awareness about World Day of Illness, commemorated tomorrow.

Experts are concerned that only 27% of people aged 50 to 75 years have been able to perform some of the tests that can prevent this condition (fecal occult blood test and colonoscopy, among others). The data comes from the National Survey of Risk Factors and the experts' worry is that 90% of colon cancer cases are preceded by a precursor lesion, the adenomatous polyp, which may take a decade to develop and that is detected by the exams mentioned.

Far from it, the disease annually causes 7,596 deaths a year in Argentina, according to the National Cancer Institute and is at the same time the second leading cause of cancer deaths in men and women, behind lung cancer and cancer. bad, respectively.

The figures are so large because, when they make the diagnosis, more than 60% of cases have advanced disease, a situation in which the overall survival at 5 years is around 60%.

"As a country, we need to optimize early detection methods to reach 90% of cures," says Marcelo César Terrés, professor at the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences of the Austral University and head of the department of surgery of the 39, Southern University Hospital, adding that "the key is to educate to reduce risk factors".

What are these risk factors? In the specific case of colon cancer, tobacco consumption, alcohol, sedentary lifestyle and obesity are listed, in addition to the high consumption of red meat and saturated fats.

Specialists also consider that the consumer education of certain foods and products protecting the body against this disease is necessary.

These include fresh fruits and vegetables, some antioxidant vitamins, a high calcium diet and the use – if any – of certain anti-inflammatories.