What Is the Chance of Surviving Colon Cancer?

Colon cancer is a common cancer that kills tens of thousands of people every year. If colon cancer is diagnosed at the early stages, most people will survive the cancer. The collection of statistics by the government allows us quantify this survival rate.

Stage Survival Rates

• The National Cancer Institute (NCI) maintains a database of cancer statistics called Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER). Based on a sampling of 120,000 people diagnosed with colon cancer between 1991 and 2000, the five-year survival rates based on the stage of the disease are below. Stage I is considered the least serious form of colon cancer, and stage IV is the most advanced.

  Stage I Survival Rates - 93%.
  Stage II Survival Rates - 72-85%
  Stage III Survival Rates - 44-83%
  Stage IV Survival Rates - 8%.

U.S Colon Cancer Mortality Rates

• Based on colon cancer deaths in the U.S. from 2002-2006, the age-adjusted death rate was 18.2 per 100,000 men and women per year.

U.S Colon Cancer Mortality Rates -- Highest By Race

• African Americans had the highest colon cancer death rate among either men or women, with a death rate of 31.4 per 100,000 men, and 21.6 per 100,000 women.

U.S Colon Cancer Mortality Rates -- Lowest By Race

• Asian/Pacific Islanders had the lowest colon cancer death rate among either men or women, with a death rate of 13.8 per 100,000 men, and 10.0 per 100,000 women.

Colon Cancer By Age

• In the U.S. from 2002-2006, the median age at which people with colon cancer died was 75 years old.