As with breast and cervical cancer, colorectal cancer is often detected at an earlier stage due to the screenings. “Seventy percent of the cancers that we find through the screenings are therefore in a more treatable stage. The impact of the population screening is therefore clear,” says Dr Martens. “In the first stage, the cancer is very treatable and the prognosis is therefore good. 95 percent of the patients are still alive after five years.”
In those who do not undergo screening, a discovered cancer is much more often at a later stage. And that can have major consequences. “The chance of survival is lower at a later stage, so there is a big difference individually. If you find the cancer early, you can treat it better and you can also cure more people definitively.”
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