Bowel cancer is a disease of the large bowel (colon) or rectum. It is also sometimes called colorectal or colon cancer.

It is the second largest cause of cancer deaths in Australia, with 73 people dying every week from the disease. Each year around 13,500 people are told they have bowel cancer, split almost equally across men and women.

Around 1 in 12 people will develop bowel cancer at some point in their life.

    •    Experts do not know precisely what causes most bowel cancers, and in
         many cases there are no obvious causes.

    •    Diet, lifestyle and family history are the three things most likely to
         affect a person’s chances of developing bowel cancer.

    •    The risk of bowel cancer increases with age but it does affect younger
          people.

    •   Eat a healthy diet. This means eating lots of fruit, vegetables,
        wholegrain foods and fish, and less fat, red and processed meat.

    •   Exercise regularly and try to maintain a healthy weight.

    •   Quit smoking.

    •   Reduce alcohol intake.

    •   Know your body and how it functions so that you recognise changes
        in your bowel habits.

  Not everyone will have symptoms and the symptoms may vary.
  The most common symptoms to look out for are:

    •   A persistent change in bowel habit, especially going more often
        or looser motions for several weeks.

    •   Bleeding from the bottom without any obvious reason.

    •   Abdominal pain, especially if severe.

    •   Unexplained weight loss.

Remember that most of these symptoms will not be cancer. If you have one or more of these symptoms you should go and see your GP.