Colorectal cancer is also known as bowel cancer, rectal cancer or colon cancer, this is a cancer that affects your colon and rectum. Fatality rate has fallen due to medical advances in recent times. As per an analysis done in year 2021, the number of cases diagnosed with Colorectal cancer are rising among people younger than 50 years of age, most probably due to improvements in screening nowadays.
In this article we will know about the symptoms of colorectal cancer, diagnosis and treatments of colorectal cancer in India.
What are the Symptoms of Colorectal Cancer?
This type of cancer may not cause any symptoms in the early stages. If it does then they may include the following:
- Bowel habits changes
- Constipation
- A feeling that bowel does not clean fully
- Blood in the feces making it look dark brown in color black
- Blood from rectum
- Bloating and abdominal pain
- Feeling heavy stomach for long time after having food
- Tiredness or fatigue
- Weight loss
- Anemia
If your doctor finds out signs of anemia in a routine medical check, they might suggest screening of your colorectal cancer. Others may receive a confirm diagnosis after a detailed screening. Approximately 40% of patients with this type of disease receive the diagnosis when it is in an early stage.
How Colorectal Cancer Is Diagnosed?
Below mentioned are some of the most common Investigations to diagnose Colorectal cancer;
Colonoscopy; This is considered as gold standard diagnostics tool for diagnosis of colorectal cancer. This has high accuracy and may show precisely the location of the tumor.
Blood Stool Test; This is needed to check blood in a stool sample. This problem may result from many conditions and it does not mean that cancer is present in the body. A patient can take the stool sample at home and submit it back to the hospital for further checking.
Stool Immunochemistry; This is also known as a fecal immunochemistry test, this test checks about the hidden blood in lower colon.
Flexible Sigmoidoscopy; In this procedure doctors use a sigmoidoscope which is a flexible, lighted tube for examination of the rectum and sigmoid colon.
Barium Enema X-Ray; Barium is contrasting dye which can reveal any type of unusual features on X-ray.
CT Colonography; This shows the images of the colon. It is less invasive than doing a colonoscopy, however, if this test reveals about presence of a mass, then the patient will need a colonoscopy.
Imaging Scans; Ultrasound(USG) , CT SCAN or a MRI may reveal if cancer has gone on to spread to another parts of the body.
What is the Treatment for Colorectal Cancer?
- Treatment will depend on a number of factors and those may include:
- Size & location of tumors and also the stage of disease
- Whether it is recurrent or not
- Overall health of the patient
The treatment options include Surgery, Radiation therapy and Chemotherapy. Palliative care helps manage pain and done to improve the quality of life of a patient.
