**2.1 The occurrence of colorectal cancer at nationwide**

From 2005 to 2006, we reported 4646 cases of fatal colorectal cancer among all 93,719 cancer death cases. It was responsible for about 5% of all cancer cases. Colorectal cancer was distributed in all 671 districts within 63 provinces/cities of Vietnam. Among 4646 colorectal cases, there were 2450 men (52.7%). The average age at death was 62 in men and 66 in women [14]. In 2002, the estimated number of death from colorectal cancer was 1730 cases in men and 2401 cases in women, provided that the total number of cases was 4131 [25]. The average reported number per year was 2323 cases in 2005–2006, which was only 56% of the estimated number of 4131 cases. According to GLOBOCAN 2018, colon ranked the fifth in the incidence and mortality among malignant diseases, with 5457 new cases and 3183 deaths per year [4].
