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The 5-year relative survival rate for persons whose colorectal cancer is treated in an early stage is greater than 90%. Unfortunately, only 39% of colorectal cancers are found at an early stage. Once the cancer has spread to nearby organs or lymph nodes, the 5-year relative survival rate goes down, and if cancer has spread to distant organs (i.e., the liver or lung) the 5-year survival is less than 10%.

The 5-year survival rate refers to the percentage of patients who live at least 5 years after their cancer is diagnosed, however, many patients live much longer than 5 years after diagnosis.

Five-year survival rates by Stage of colorectal cancer are as follows:

• Stage I: > 90%
• Stage II: 60-85%
• Stage III: 25-65%
• Stage IV: 5-7%

From diagnosis of metastatic disease, patients with advanced colorectal cancer have a medial survival rate of only six months.

Because of close monitoring and aggressive management, the survival for persons with hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) has improved, with a 5 year survival rate of 65% compared with 44% for persons with colorectal cancer in the general population.

Despite the fact that approximately 70-80% of patients are eligible for curative surgical resection at the time of diagnosis, five year overall survival is only 50-60%. Two out of three patients who undergo curative resection will experience local recurrence or distant metastases. In 85%, relapse is diagnosed within the first 2.5 years after surgery.

Bevacizumab improves response rate and survival when used with fluorouracil/ leucovorin regimens as initial therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer, and cetuximab doubles response rate and decreases the risk of cancer progression in cancers that are resistant to irinotecan.