Early Detection of Colorectal Cancer [antikvár]

The Significance of Colorectal Cancer and the Chances of Early Detection* K. Goerttler For more than two decades cancer has taken second place in the statistics of the causes of death of the western world, directly after cardiac and circulatory diseases. In the Federal Republic of Germany, 152000 people died as a consequence of cancer, every fifth death was a death from cancer. This portion has been rather constant during the last few years, less so, however, the participation of the individual organs: About half of the deaths from cancer is distributed to only six organ localizations: respiratory tract with lungs, mammary gland, colon and rectum, stomach, cervix uteri, body of the uterus and prostate gland. Among these localizations we can observe a continuous steep rise in cancerous diseases of the respiratory tract and, with both sexes, a slight decrease of cancer of the stomach. In women, cancer of the mammary glands is on the increase. There is no direct relation between death and incidence. The frequent* skin cancer rarely leads to death. It is detected at an early stage in most cases and, subsequently, treated in time. Cancer Screenings In connection with the cancer screenings for women the spread of cancer manifestation at the cervix uteri has decreased. Here the carcinomas are getting smaller and smaller, i. e. more carcinomata in situ and microcarcinomas are observed than extensively infiltrating carcinomas and this is the reason why cancer of the cervix uteri has not gone down in frequency statistics but has done so in the statistics of the causes of death. Unfortunately, this pleasing development must not make us forget that even today cancerous diseases as a whole are generally detected much too late, that * Dedicated to the nestor of German cancer research, Professor Dr. med. h. c. (mult.) Karl-Heinrich Bauer.