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Colon Cancer

Everyone should know that Colon cancer is an extremely deadly disease that invades the large intestine. If untreated the cancer can eventually perforate the walls of the colon and spread. Each year there are over 100,000 new cases diagnosed, but early detection and appropriate treatment are key to surviving it.

Symptoms

Like many other cancers, colon cancer is often undetectable in its early stages. Symptoms will eventually appear, however, and may include some of all of the following:

Continuous abdominal pain and discomfort, such as gas or cramping.
Weight loss that is unexplained.
Fatigue.
Diarrhea, constipation, change in stool consistency for more than a week or two.
After bowel movement, the sensation that you still have more to empty.
Bleeding (rectal), blood in stool, pain with bowel movement.

These symptoms can sometimes be caused by another disease, so you should never ignore them just because you think they may be from something else.

Diagnosis

There are several tests available to screen for colon cancer. Occult blood test checks for hidden blood in the stool, but it is not reliable or thorough. Stool DNA tests can check for cancer markers. Currently this test does not check for all possible cancerous DNA.

The flexible sigmoidoscopy involves an inspection of the last 24 inches of your colon using a small tube. It is more risky than other tests, and if a polyp is found your doctor will have to do a colonoscopy to remove it. It also will not detect cancers in other parts of the colon.

The colonoscopy is the most popular of the tests for large intestine cancer. The same techniques as the flexible sigmoidoscopy are used, except that a longer tube with a video camera is used. This colonoscope traverses the whole colon and rectal area, not just the large colon. The doctor can remove polyps as she goes along, and collect samples for biopsies. This test is almost always done with the patient sedated due to the discomfort. Virtual colonoscopies are also done, where a computerized tomography image is taken of your colon and the colonoscope not used. However, polyps and biopsies cannot be performed.

Treatments

Often surgery is an option for colon cancer victims, and the surgeon will remove the cancer as well as a little tissue around the edge--called the margin--for better coverage. Sometimes enough of the colon must be removed that a patient will have a colostomy, where elimination of waste takes place in a bag. Although this is sometimes temporary, it also can be a permanent result. In rare cases, surgery to prevent large intestine cancer is performed.

Chemotherapy is often a choice, and doses have been fine tuned so that there is not the suffering involved in this treatment as in years past. It is the same with radiation, which is also frequently used in later stages of large intestine cancer.

However, the best treatment is prevention when possible. Choose a varied, low fat, high fiber diet, don’t smoke, drink little, keep a healthy weight, and check drugs you may be taking for their contribution to colon cancer. Do your part.