Report in English with a Dutch summary (KCE reports 45A)

KCE reports vol.45 Screening for Colorectal Cancer 23
The incidence data for Belgium in table 2 were based on older data from
Flanders 1997 1998 and might be underestimated. More recent data from
Flanders show slightly higher incidence numbers 39: in the years 2000 - 2001, a
total of 8.513 cases of invasive colorectal cancer were diagnosed in Flanders in
those two years combined, 4.595 in men and 3.918 in women.
In Flanders colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in men (after
prostate and lung cancer) while it is the second most common cancer in
women, only after breast cancer (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Most frequent cancers in Flanders (source: Vlaams
Agentschap Zorg en Gezondheid 39)
Figure 2 presents crude numbers of colorectal cancers by gender and age group
in Flanders for the period 2000 - 2001. In absolute numbers, most colorectal
cancers occur around the age of 70 - 74 in men and around the age of 75 - 79 in
women.