What are digestive cancers?

Digestive cancers can develop along the entire digestive tract (esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, anus), as well as in other organs such as the liver, pancreas, and biliary tracts. Institut Curie treats more than 840 patients with these diseases every year. 

With more than 43,000 new cases diagnosed each year in France, colon and rectal cancer, or colorectal cancer, is by far the most common of the primary cancers of the digestive tract. This high frequency justifies the establishment of an organized screening for men and women aged 50 to 74 years. 

In the absence of particular risk factors, this screening consists of performing a fecal test every 2 years, at home, to look for a possible microscopic hemorrhage in the stool. If the result is positive, a colonoscopy should be performed. This test is available in the majority of pharmacies, and it is also possible to order it online on the health insurance website and have it delivered to your house. The gastroenterologists at Institut Curie are at your disposal to perform a colonoscopy, which is essential if the test is positive.

Pancreatic cancer has become much more common in recent decades. They are now second among digestive cancers (number of new cases diagnosed in France in 2018 estimated at more than 14,000), ahead of stomach cancers (4,657 new cases estimated in 2018), and esophageal cancers (5,445 new cases estimated). 

Primary cancers of the small intestine are much rarer. 

Anal cancers, linked to an infection with oncogenic papillomaviruses, are also rare. They have the particularity of having a high sensitivity to radiotherapy.