Colorectal cancer: primary prevention, screening and preventive surgery
Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Germany.
Its incidence rate can be reduced by 50% through primary prevention, which is effective
and economical. However, most people are not aware of the powerful tools of primary
prevention, therefore secondary prevention is the strategy of choice. Recommended
secondary prevention strategy contains annual fecal-occult blood testing in combination
with sigmoidoscopy once every 5 years. More recently, screening with colonoscopy has
become the preferred choice of many experts although it is not recommended in the
guidelines until now.
