What is bowel cancer?

Bowel cancer is cancer in any part of the large bowel, including the colon, rectum and rectosigmoid. It is sometimes known as colorectal cancer and might also be called colon or rectal cancer, depending on where it starts in the bowel.

You can access further information about bowel cancer, including risk factors, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment from Cancer Council Victoria. You can also call our trusted cancer nurses on 13 11 20 for support and to learn about our range of services for people affected by cancer.

The Victorian Cancer Registry also operates an interactive web portal, Data Explorer, which provides more trends and statistics than published here.

How common is bowel cancer?

In 2024, 3812 Victorians were diagnosed with bowel cancer. Of these, there were 2068 males and 1744 females, representing 54% and 46% of the total Victorian bowel cancer diagnoses, respectively. Currently, bowel cancer is diagnosed at a rate of 53 per 100,000 males and 39 per 100,000 females. The median age at diagnosis of bowel cancer is 69 years in males and 72 in females (Figure 1 & 2). Accounting for 9.4% of all cancers diagnosed and 11% of all cancer-related deaths in 2024, bowel cancer was the 3rd most commonly diagnosed cancer and the 2nd most common cause of cancer-related deaths in Victoria in 2024.

Trends in bowel cancer over time

Figure 3a shows for males between 2010 to 2024 the age standardised incidence rate of bowel cancer declined by an average of 2.5% per year.

For females between 2017 to 2024 the age standardised incidence rate of bowel cancer declined by an average of 2.8% per year.

Bowel cancer morphology

Figure 4 provides a summary of the different types of cells (morphology) which have caused bowel cancer among all cases. Most bowel cancer tumours, 80%, present as adenocarcinoma tumours.

Geographical variance in bowel cancer by local government area

Figure 5 demonstrates variation in the estimated risk of being diagnosed with bowel cancer, by local government area, relative to the Victorian average. Red shading indicates areas with higher risk and blue shading indicates areas with lower risk relative to Victoria.

Bowel cancer in people born overseas

Figure 6 shows the standardised incidence ratios (SIRs) of bowel cancer in Australian-born Victorians compared to other major migrant groups, over the five-year period 2019 to 2023. The highest standardised incidence ratio (SIR) for bowel cancer was 1.1 for males born in the Southern Europe region and the lowest SIR of 0.44 was observed in males born in the Southern and Central Asia region. The highest standardised incidence ratio (SIR) for bowel cancer was 1.0 for females born in the Australia and New Zealand region and lowest SIR of 0.46 was observed in females born in the Southern and Central Asia region.

Bowel cancer distribution by stage at diagnosis

Figure 7 shows distribution of bowel cancer by stage of disease at diagnosis in 2024. In males, Stage 1 accounted for the largest proportion (22%) of new diagnoses and Stage 3 for the lowest proportion (17%) of new bowel cancer diagnoses. In females, Stage 1 accounted for the largest proportion (23%) of new diagnoses and Stage 4 accounted for the lowest proportion (16%) of new bowel cancer diagnoses.

Bowel cancer five-year relative survival

Figure 8 shows the change in 5-year survival for bowel cancer, and the 5-year survival trend for all cancers over the same time period. It demonstrates that five-year relative survival has increased for bowel cancer between 1985-1989 and 2020-2024 from 49% to 72%.