Colonic diverticulosis in patients with colorectal cancer and in controls

The barium enemas of 119 patients with colorectal cancer and 119 age-matched controls were examined for evidence of diverticula. Amongst men, 39.6% of patients with colorectal cancer had diverticulosis, compared with 50% in the control group. In the women, 39.3% of patients with colorectal cancer had diverticular disease, compared with 36% of the controls. There appears to be no significant aetiologic association between the two conditions, since they do not occur together more frequently than in controls, although each is reputedly the result of fibre lack.