March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Posted by Nora Barnett on March 19th, 2026 Posted in: Blog
Tags: Colorectal Cancer, Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

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Colorectal cancer refers to cancers that start in the colon or rectum, which are parts of the large intestine. Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers in the United States. Approximately 1 in 25 people will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer in their lifetime. Screening is highly effective at catching colorectal cancer at a stage when treatment is most successful.

The curated list of resources below contains a lot more information about colorectal cancer! Honor this awareness month by checking the resources out.

For the Public:

National Cancer Institute: Colorectal Cancer—Patient Version
Find evidence-based information about colorectal cancer, presented in a format that is easy to understand and accompanied by visuals. This National Cancer Institute page serves as a hub that links to detailed sections on screening, prevention, staging, treatment, genetics, statistics, and research.

SEER Cancer Stat Facts page for colorectal cancer
Explore statistics on colorectal cancer in the United States using data from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program. Learn about key measures such as incidence, mortality, survival, prevalence, and lifetime risk, along with estimates of new cases and deaths.

The information on this page is displayed using clear charts, tables, and numerical formats that follow best practices in risk communication and numeracy, making the statistics easier to understand and use.

MedlinePlus: Colorectal Cancer
A patient‑focused resource from the National Library of Medicine, Medline Plus offers vetted information about colorectal cancer, including what it is, risk factors, symptoms, screening and diagnostic tests, treatments, and prevention. MedlinePlus organizes content into clear sections like basics, symptoms, diagnosis, living with the disease, research, and resources, and also includes images, videos, tools, patient handouts, and links to trustworthy external resources. The page is designed according to plain language and health literacy best practices, making complex information easy to find, understand, and use.

For Health Professionals:

National Cancer Institute: Colorectal Cancer—Health Professional Version
The professional counterpart to the patient version, this PDQ evidence summary from the National Cancer Institute is written for clinicians and researchers. It contains peer-reviewed summaries covering treatment, screening, prevention, genetics, and supportive care, presenting scientific evidence in greater depth.

CDC: Colorectal Cancer Communications Resources
Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month is a great time to spread awareness, and this page contains ready-to-use materials designed to help health professionals and public health organizations communicate about colorectal cancer prevention and screening. It offers videos, print resources, and social media content that convey evidence-based information in clear, accessible language, supporting health literacy.

PubMed
With over 40 million citations to the biomedical literature, PubMed is a place to find evidence behind queries related to colorectal cancer, including but not limited to those related to screening, prevention, treatment, and epidemiology.

We recommend using keyword searching, i.e., colorectal cancer without any quotation marks. If you put quotes around an entry term, it will turn off Automatic Term Mapping, the powerful behind-the-scenes tool that maps search terms to a MeSH heading.

MeSH-afficianos can see the colorectal cancer MeSH heading in the MeSH database, along with subheadings, entry terms, and locations on branches of the MeSH tree.

Thanks for taking time this March to increase awareness of colorectal cancer!