1,000 lives lost to colorectal cancer in 10 years

Almost 1,000 people lost their battle with colorectal cancer between 1995 and 2005, according to figures issued by the Malta National Cancer Registry.

These included 481 men and 436 women. The youngest victims were two men aged between 20 and 24, who died in 1999.

The statistics show that 1,493 new cases of colorectal cancer - which begins in the colon or rectum - were registered in Malta between 1995 and 2004. The number of men affected, 755, is slightly higher than women at 738.

According to pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis, one million new cases of colorectal cancer are diagnosed every year around the globe, with 194,000 of these diagnosed in Europe. The US has a slightly lower diagnosis number of 150,000 a year.

The American Society of Cancer ranks colorectal cancer as the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the US, accounting for 10 to 15 per cent of all cancer deaths. One in every 18 people develop colorectal cancer over a lifetime and every year 94,000 people in Europe and more than 56,000 in the US succumb to it.

Earlier this month Sanofi-Aventis announced results from three studies evaluating the success of a drug when used to treat various gastrointestinal tumours, including colorectal, pancreatic and gastric cancers.

The study showed that chemotherapy based on the drug Eloxatin combined with another drug used for the treatment of cancer provided significant improvement in the overall survival for patients with advanced colorectal cancer.

The results were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's 42nd annual meeting.