In 2007, 62 out of every 100,000 black men in the United States were diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer, the highest rate of colorectal cancer of any US group.

Overall, men were more likely to get colorectal cancer than women — almost 53 of every 100,000 American males compared to 40 per 100,000 females.

Reporting colorectal cancer incidence rates for 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged regular colorectal cancer screening for all average risk adults 50 years and older to cut deaths from colorectal cancer.

According to the CDC, 142,672 Americans were diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2007, including 72,755 men and 69,917 women. Read the rest of this entry »

For people from 25 to 64, U. S. death rates from the four major cancers — lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal — have decreased steadily from the early 1990′s.  However, with a single exception, those declines have been limited to people with at least 12 years of education.

For colon and rectal cancer, death rates for those with at least 16 years of education declined significantly for men and women, both black and white.  However, death rates did not change at all for white men, white women or black women who had less than a high school education.  Death rates for black men with less than 12 years of education actually increased by 2.7 percent each year. Read the rest of this entry »