Research Paper on:
Screening for Colon and Rectal Cancer

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
food is digested and absorbed by the small intestine (American Gastroenterological Association, 2002). The colon absorbs water and reduces the volume of the waste that needs to be eliminated in  the stool (American Gastroenterological Association, 2002). When healthy, the colon does a very efficient job. Colorectal cancer, cancer of the colon or rectum, is the third most commonly diagnosed  cancer and is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States (Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, 1997; Cancer Research Foundation of America, About, 2002). This  is true for both men and women. Colorectal cancer deaths surpasses even breast cancer for women and prostate cancer for men; only lung cancer causes more deaths than colorectal  cancer (Cancer Research Foundation of America, About, 2002). About 148,300 cases of colorectal cancer were diagnosed in 2001 and 56,600 patients died of the disease in the same year  (Cancer Research Foundation of America, About, 2002). The potential for colorectal cancer increases with age beginning about age 40 (Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, 1997). The incidence of  the disease is higher for men than for men with a ratio of 60.4 in men and 40.9 in women per 100,000 population (Agency for Health Care Policy and  Research, 1997). Survival rate is dependent upon the stage of the disease when first diagnosed but about 65 percent of patients who are diagnosed are already in the advanced  stages of the cancer (Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, 1997). When the cancer is limited to the bowel wall, the five year survival rate is nearly 90 percent;  when the lymph nodes are also affected, the five year survival rate drops to between 35 and 60 percent (Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, 1997). That percentage plummets