Colon Cancer

Colon cancer occurs in the large intestine or the large bowel and is a very common kind of cancer, second only to lung cancer in occurrence. The risk of colon cancer is higher in certain groups and ethnicities, as well as in people living in Western industrialized countries. The positive side is that colon cancer also has a very high rate of cure and survival.

Colon cancer is also known as colo-rectal cancer. The large intestine has two sections: the upper portion is the colon and the lower portion is the anus or the rectum. Cancer in the large intestine

Common Types Of Cancer

Cancer incidence and mortality statistics reported by the American Cancer Society¹ and other resources were used to create the list. To qualify as a common cancer for the list, the estimated annual incidence for 2014 had to be 40,000 cases or more.

The most common type of cancer on the list is breast cancer, with about 235,000 new cases expected in the United States in 2014. The next most common cancers are prostate cancer and lung cancer. 

Because colon and rectal cancers are often referred to as "colorectal cancers," these two cancer types are combined for the list. For 2014, the estimated number of new cases of colon cancer and rectal cancer are 96,830 and 40,000, respectively, adding to a total of 136,830 new cases of colorectal cancer.

The following table gives the estimated numbers of new cases and deaths for each common cancer type: