Cancer survival rates are improving with incidence rates for all cancers of men and women combined dropping by 0.8 % per year from 1999 to 2005. The report released by the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, and other scientific groups said the incidence and cancer deaths fell for three most common cancers among men - lung, colorectal and prostate - and for breast and colorectal cancers in women.

According to the provincial health ministry the Canadian province of Ontario has one of the world's highest rates of colorectal cancer, and it's the second deadliest cancer in the province. Although the diseases has a 90 % cure rate when detected in its early stages, as it's often asymptomatic, the cancer is often missed until it has progressed. To help in early diagnosis they are promoting home fecal occult tests, a screening tool that tests for blood in the stool. A small stool sample is to be collected and checked on three different days for blood before it is visible to the eye. A positive in the home test means a colonoscopy, which is a technique that is able to detect 90% of precancerous polyps 10 millimeters or larger.

A study published in the journal Gut said a similar home screening process in the UK has halved the number of hospital admissions and deaths from colon cancer in those areas within five years.

The decline in the death rate from colorectal cancer over the past few years, is partly due to a decrease in the number of cases, according to the American Cancer Society, but also because of the growing use of screening programs that help to catch the disease early.