The colon is the terminal of the human digestion system. It prepares the stool before expelling it out from the rectum (the end organ of the alimentary tract). Cancer that occurs in this part of the human intestine is known as colon cancer. Usually, this cancer develops in the human body from the polyps that form from the cells of the inner layer of the colon. Once polyps start to develop, it takes quite some time for them to become cancerous. It is not a quick process, so if diagnosed in time, one can evade this disease.
Symptoms of Colon Cancer
Colon cancer is a slow process and it might not produce symptoms till it reaches a later stage. Still, there are a few common symptoms that can help in knowing if you have colon cancer:
- If there is a change in your bowel habit; it can be either diarrhoea, constipation, or both. Patients diagnosed with colon cancer also commonly show this symptom.
- Patients also report instances of anaemia, which can be caused due to the slow loss or prolonged loss of blood from the patient’s large intestine. In this, the blood loss is not visible to the naked eye as it is slow and less. This process is also known as occult blood loss.
- In some cases of colon cancer, patients also report blood in the stool.
- In this type of cancer, sometimes the entire lumen of the intestine gets filled, which obstructs the easy flow of stool. Over a period, this obstruction also causes abdominal distension leading to a situation where emergency surgery is the only way out.
- Other symptoms include loss of appetite, weight loss, weakness, feeling fatigued most of the time, malaise, and many more.
Risk Factors
Colon cancer is one of those types of cancer that can happen to anyone. However, there is a specific group of people who are at higher risk of developing this cancer. People who face a higher risk include:
- Those who have a family history of cancer, especially of the colon, pancreas, breasts, and prostate.
- People having a strong history of chronic inflammatory conditions of the colon, such as ulcerative colitis.
- Those who either have a family member with polyps or themselves have extensive polyps throughout their intestines.
- People who refrain from taking high fibre in their diet. It is also common among people who consume a diet of high red meat or a lot of processed food.
- People who consume excess alcohol or smoke a lot.
- Those who have obesity or metabolic syndrome, because this group of people can easily develop rectal cancer, breast cancer, or pancreatic cancer, which can lead to Colon Cancer.
Preventive Measures that Reduce the Risk of Colon Cancer
There are some practices that can help you reduce the risk of suffering from colon cancer; here are a few things that you should do:
- You should lead a healthy lifestyle that constitutes healthy eating habits, regular physical exercise, minimal consumption of alcohol, and adoption of a no-smoking principle.
- If you fall in any of the categories for high-risk factors, you should get periodic screenings to reduce the risk of developing cancer. Screening helps in identifying or diagnosing cancer in your body (if any). Periodic screening helps in avoiding the above-mentioned symptoms of colon cancer. The screening tools that are available for this purpose include sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy, or the faecal occult blood test. For those who are not at risk, these tests can be done first at an age of 50 years and then at regular intervals. But if you fall into any category mentioned above, you should start getting screening tests done at an earlier age.
- If at all you feel that any of the above-mentioned symptoms have started showing up in your body, you should consult with a surgeon and find out what should be done next.
Another important thing about this cancer is to get it diagnosed as soon as you have a suspicion that you may be developing colon cancer. Get a colonoscopy done, in which your intestines are examined properly through the anus using endoscopy. This also helps in knowing the exact location of the tumour in your colon.
If the surgeon detects a tumour in your colon; a small biopsy is done to get the confirmation of cancer.
Once there is a report confirming colon cancer by a pathologist, the next step is taken to determine the stage of the disease. This staging is done with the help of an ultrasound scan of the patient’s abdomen, a chest X-Ray, and a CT scan of the chest and abdomen.
Based on the stage of cancer, the doctors will suggest to either go for surgery or for chemotherapy. Also, the treatment method depends on the location of cancer. Radical Colectomy is the procedure that’s generally followed, based on the site of cancer.
With the introduction of newer immunotherapy and chemotherapy regimens for rectal and colon cancer, the 5-year survival rate of all the patients has tremendously increased even if the patient is at stage 4 of cancer.
