Around 25 per cent, or more than 3000 of the 13,000 bowel cancers diagnosed in Australia every year could be prevented if men and women maintained a healthy body weight, ate a healthy diet and engaged in daily physical activity.
In an Australian first, Cancer Council Australia has developed a public health campaign which links the three elements of good nutrition, physical activity and healthy body weight with bowel cancer prevention.
The centrepiece of the new campaign is a television commercial which promotes a healthy lifestyle as the best way to reduce the risk of developing bowel cancer. The campaign is called Avoid the cure.