Simple ways to prevent colorectal cancer at home

Colorectal cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the world after lung cancer, stomach cancer and liver cancer. Worldwide, there are 8 million new cases of this cancer each year, including more than 860,000 deaths.

In Vietnam, over the past 18 years, the number of new cases of colorectal cancer has nearly tripled, to nearly 15,000 cases according to WHO data in 2018, including nearly 9,300 deaths.

Colorectal cancer is currently the 5th most common cancer in Vietnam. However, it is predicted that by 2025, colorectal cancer will rise to the 2nd most common cancer in men and the 4th most common cancer in women.

Although cancer is common, Dr. Pham Van Binh, Head of Abdominal Surgery Department I, K Hospital, said that if detected at an early stage, the 5-year survival rate is over 90%, many patients still live well after 20 years, if in a late stage, this rate is only less than 10%.

Unfortunately, up to 70-80% of colorectal cancer patients in Vietnam are diagnosed at a late stage, with limited treatment.

According to Dr. Nguyen Tien Quang, Deputy Director of K Hospital, up to now, studies have shown that there are 2 groups of risk factors for colorectal cancer.

Diet is one of the risk factors that increase the incidence of colorectal cancer.

Group 2 is the factors that can be changed, directly related to lifestyle, including: Unscientific diet, eating a lot of red meat, a lot of fat, eating a lot of fried foods, processed meats, eating few vegetables; lack of exercise can increase the risk of colorectal cancer 2-5 times; obesity; drinking a lot of beer and alcohol; smoking; having a history of colon polyps.

According to Dr. Quang, studies have shown that red meat (beef, lamb) is considered to be closely related to colon cancer. Eating about 160g/day or a diet with meat more than 5 times/week has a 3 times higher risk.

In the form of fried, grilled, smoked meat, ham, sausage, protein will increase carcinogenic factors, and fat will be metabolized by bacteria in the intestine, causing abnormal epithelial cell proliferation and developing into cancer.

In cases where relatives have had colorectal cancer, doctors recommend that family members should be screened for colorectal cancer earlier and have regular colonoscopies to check for polyps.

Colon polyps need early intervention to prevent them from progressing to cancer.

After polyp removal, depending on the number of polyps and high or low risk factors, the patient needs to have a colonoscopy every 1-3 years.

Apart from the above cases, most cases of colorectal cancer can be prevented by changing lifestyle and having a healthy diet.

Dr. Quang said that just regular physical activity can help reduce the risk of colorectal cancer by nearly 30% compared to people who are sedentary.

If each person eats more than 800g of vegetables and fruits/day, it can help reduce the risk of colorectal cancer by 0.74 times compared to those who consume less than 200g of vegetables/day. However, currently, nearly 60% of Vietnamese people only eat 170-200g of vegetables/day, less than 50% of WHO's recommendation.

Eating lots of vegetables and fruits will help prevent colon cancer.

Doctors also recommend that people limit their intake of animal fat and meat; reduce fat from 40% to 20-25%, limit salt, fermented foods, dried fish, soy sauce, bacon, limit alcohol and tobacco abuse, and avoid toxic chemicals.