Colorectal Cancer Risk Factors
Tuesday, March 4, 2008

In the second part of his four-part series on colorectal cancer, Dr. Ken Davis discusses risk factors of colorectal cancer in today’s 60 Second Housecall.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer found in men and women. The American Cancer Society estimates that there are more than 140,000 new cases of colorectal cancer each year in the United States.

While we do not know the exact cause of most colorectal cancer, there are certain known risk factors. They include:

- Age: Your chance of having colorectal cancer goes up after age 50.

-  History of polyps, bowel disease or a family history of colorectal cancer.

-  Race: African Americans have the greatest risk of colorectal cancer.

-  Diet: A diet high in fat can increase the risk of colorectal cancer, and

-  Diabetes: People with diabetes have a 30 percent increased chance of getting colorectal cancer.

Other risk factors include a lack of exercise, being overweight, smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages.

The American Cancer Society recommends earlier screening for people with these risk factors.

For North Mississippi Medical Center, I’m Dr. Ken Davis.