What are some disorders or diseases of the excretory system and the digestive system?
Bowel cancer (aka colon cancer or colorectal cancer) is a fairly well known disease of the digestive system. With a death count of 665,000 people a year it is rather serious too, the third most common form of cancer in the western world. The lifetime risk of contracting it is only around 7% in America. though this increases with age. Reasons for contracting colorectal cancer could vary from inheritance by parents to smoking or eating a lot of not fully cooked meats. The treatment depends on the staging of the cancer. When colorectal cancer is caught at early stages (with little spread) it can be curable. However, when it is detected at later stages (when distant metastases are present) it is less likely to be curable. Surgery remains the primary treatment while chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy may be recommended depending on the individual patients staging and other medical factors.
