Every year, nearly one million people worldwide die from colorectal cancer, making it the second highest number of cancer-related deaths. The number of patients continues to rise. In 2020, almost 2 million new cases were diagnosed. In Poland, colorectal cancer is diagnosed in more than 19,000 people a year. This is despite the fact that there are effective screening techniques that can catch the disease before symptoms appear and reduce mortality. A prophylactic colonoscopy can reduce the risk of colorectal cancer by up to 60-90 per cent, but there are still many myths surrounding the test, with the consequence that most of the public have their own, often misconceptions about the test and push back the decision to have it done. The main objective of the 'Servier - Stop Cancer!' prevention and education campaign is to promote pre-cancer prevention, raise public awareness of risk factors among Poles, motivate them to overcome their fear and shame of being screened and emphasise the importance of early detection of the disease for effective treatment. During the just-concluded fourth edition of the campaign, held under the slogan 'Colonoscopy is not a cosmos', the organisers emphasised the special role of preventive examinations in relation to factors increasing the risk of colorectal cancer and drew attention to alarming symptoms that may indicate the first signs of the disease.
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