Bowel cancer: what is it?
What is the bowel?
Your bowel is the tube that goes from your stomach to your anus. As your food travels down the bowel it is digested. By the time it gets to the end of the bowel, there's nothing left but solid waste that your body can't use. You get rid of it when you go to the toilet.
The bowel is very long, about 10 metres, and it's packed in under your stomach. For most of its length it's narrow. This part is called the small bowel, and most of your food is digested here. The last part is much wider, so it's called the large bowel or large intestine.
What is bowel cancer?
Bowel cancer happens when cells somewhere in the bowel begin to grow out of control. They form a lump or tumour that can be benign, but some cancer cells are malignant and can spread to other parts of the body.
The large bowel has two sections, called the colon and the rectum, and most bowel cancers are found somewhere in the large bowel. So bowel cancer is sometimes called colon cancer, rectal cancer or even colorectal cancer.
Most growths in the bowel aren't cancer – they're harmless things called polyps. Most polyps don't cause any problems. The trouble is that polyps can lead to cancer and it's hard to tell which particular polyp may turn into cancer, but the larger the polyp the more dangerous or likely it will turn into cancer.
If bowel cancer isn't treated, it can sometimes grow and begin to block the bowel and it could spread to other parts of the body.
Bowel cancer statistics
Bowel or colorectal cancer is ranked second in males and females for incidence and death.
In 1998, there were 27,675 new cases of cancer in NSW. Of these 3848 people were diagnosed with bowel cancer – 2097 males and 1751 females accounting for 14 per cent of all cancers in both males and females. Males are 1.5 times more likely to develop bowel cancer than females, and 1.5 times as likely to die from it.
Of the 1606 deaths from bowel cancer, 869 were male and 737 were female, accounting for 14 per cent of all cancer deaths.
For further information and advice, call the Cancer Helpline on 13 11 20
Last Reviewed: 03 January 2002
