Prevalence of bowel cancer
Cancer survivorship focuses on the health and life of a person diagnosed with cancer after treatment until the end of life (NCI 2025). It is more than simply not dying from cancer; it focuses on living with, and life after, a cancer diagnosis (Jackson et al. 2013). Survivorship covers the physical, psychosocial, and economic issues of cancer, including the later effects of treatment, secondary cancers, and quality of life (NCI 2025).
Prevalence is the number of people alive (surviving) after a diagnosis of cancer. At the end of 2020, there were 56,200 Australians alive who had been diagnosed with bowel cancer in the previous 5 years and 95,107 who had been diagnosed in the previous 10 years (Table 2.1). When limited to people aged 50–74 at the end of 2020, there were 29,116 alive after being diagnosed with bowel cancer in the previous 5 years and 47,565 after being diagnosed in the previous 10 years (Table 2.1).
Age group (years) | Sex | 5–year prevalence | 10–year prevalence | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number | Rate per 100,000 | Number | Rate per 100,000 | ||
50–74 | Males | 16,832 | 493.0 | 27,287 | 799.2 |
| Females | 12,284 | 342.3 | 20,278 | 565.1 | |
| Persons | 29,116 | 415.8 | 47,565 | 679.2 | |
All ages | Males | 30,356 | 238.7 | 51,133 | 402.0 |
| Females | 25,844 | 200.2 | 43,974 | 340.6 | |
| Persons | 56,200 | 219.3 | 95,107 | 371.1 | |
Source: AIHW Australian Cancer Database (ACD) 2020.
References
Jackson J, Scheid K and Rolnick S (2013) ‘Development of the Cancer Survivorship Care Plan: what’s next? Life after cancer treatment’, Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 17:280–284.
NCI (National Cancer Institute) (2025) National Cancer Institute dictionary of cancer terms, accessed 16 April 2025.