Colon cancer is not an easy to treat disease when it is diagnosed in one of the last stages. This is the main reason way doctors recommend screenings for those individuals that are at a great risk in developing this disease because of the risk factors they were subjected at.

The survival rates of colon cancer confirm this hypothesis. If in the first two stages, colon cancer survival rates are not that bad, because 85 to 95 percent of all those diagnosed with these stages survive the disease, we can not say the same thing about colon cancer stage three and mostly colon cancer stage four. In stage four the survival rates of colon cancer are not higher than 10 percent. This happens because in this stage the cancer spreads to other organs and a simple surgical intervention can not treat the cancer. So, in 2009 the survival rates presented by the National Cancer Institute showed that the survival rates are at 93 percent in stage 1 and 85 percent is stage 2A. In stage three patients have also chemotherapy and surgical interventions. In this stage, the cancer starts spreading and this is the main cause way the survival rates of colon cancer becomes lower. Of course the worst prognoses are made in the last stage of colon cancer. Less than 10 percent of all those diagnosed with this last stage can treat it. This means that about 90 percent of the people that had developed colon cancer stage 4 died because of it. This happens because in this last stage, colon cancer is not an easy to treat disease because of the spread of the cancerous tumors to other parts of the body, that are not in the immediate close of the colon or colon wall. The secondary tumors grow also, and treatment must regard both the primary and the metastatic colon cancer. Treatment often regards in this phase chemotherapy administration.

In comparison with the last years, colon cancer survival rates have grown, but the number of diagnosis every year are still at a very high level. This can happen because the level of informing has also grown, but the same happened with the risk factors. Pollution is one of the colon cancer risk factors that are not very much taken into account. However, the degree of pollution, especially in some areas can increase the number of colon cancer developments. So, on one side we can say the people have understood what colon cancer means and they also acknowledged that screenings and early detection are important, but on the other side, the risk factors that can not be controlled by individuals have also increased and they influence will be more evident every year.