Symptoms of bowel cancer

Malignant tumor, which develops in the intestinal mucosa, is classified in medicine as an intestinal cancer.Most often, the cancer begins its development in polyps( build-ups) on the mucous membrane, which have small dimensions, but this does not mean that absolutely all polyps eventually become malignant.

Cancerous tumor affects the functionality of the intestines, can provoke bleeding.Much more difficult situation, if the cancer cells spread beyond the intestine - in this case, it will be a question of metastases, and the patient's treatment has to go through a long and complicated.Moreover, the detection of metastasis of malignant cells calls into question the effectiveness of treatment in general.

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If the disease in question was diagnosed at the initial stage of its development, then the survival of patients after full treatment is 90%.But the problem is that the primary signs of bowel cancer are too "blurred", a general one - timely diagnosis of a malignant tumor does not occur.And in this case, the percentage of patients' survival drops sharply to 60%.

Contents: Causes of bowel cancer development Symptoms of bowel cancer How to treat bowel cancer

Causes of bowel cancer development

Medicine, even with its current development, can not give an unambiguous answer to the question of the cause of the development of bowel cancer.But the factors that increase the risk of developing the disease in question are well defined and studied. These include:

1. Age after 50 years - just people from this age group are most often prone to rebirth of healthy polyp cells on the intestinal mucosa in malignant ones.
2. Previously diagnosed with some intestinal diseases - for example, Crohn's syndrome or ulcerative colitis.
3. Incorrect lifestyle - frequent use of alcohol, obesity of different stages, lack of motor activity( hypodynamia), a violation of the diet( eating too fatty foods).

A hereditary factor plays an important role in the development of bowel cancer: people with a history of diagnosing intestinal cancer are at increased risk.

Note: , some physicians and scientists believe that even common intestinal diseases( inflammatory) in relatives can be a reason for making patients at increased risk of developing bowel cancer.

Doctors recommend people in high-risk groups to consult specialists for examination, regular check-ups and recommendations for diet.

Symptoms of bowel cancer

At the early stage of the disease, most often symptoms are subtle and do not differ in intensity, or some characteristic features.But it is important during this period to diagnose bowel cancer - the chances of a full recovery from the patient will be very high.

Primary symptoms of intestinal cancer:

• bowel disturbance is a disorder of the stool, manifested by periodic constipation or diarrhea;
• after a bowel movement, a person observes unintentional spotting from the anus;
• in the stool periodically there is blood;
• the patient begins to lose weight quickly, moreover, such spontaneous weight loss has no explanation;
• patient complains of constant fatigue and weakness;
• irregular pain in the rectum and anus;
• is diagnosed with a decrease in the level of hemoglobin in the blood - anemia.

The listed primary signs of bowel cancer usually do not differ in intensity and constancy, so patients simply do not pay attention to them, or treat "bowel disorder", "dysbiosis" and other diseases that falsely diagnose themselves.It is noteworthy that all the symptoms after taking certain medications disappear - the patient calms down, begins to feel better.But this does not mean that you need to ignore the medical examination of specialists - it's better to spend a little time and to make sure there is no dangerous disease.

As the malignant tumor develops, the patient will notice periodically arising obstruction of the intestine. The secondary symptoms of the disease in question are:

• persistent abdominal pains of an intense nature;
• regular constipation;
• clear feeling of bloating;
• sharp deterioration of well-being.

Please note that secondary signs appear on the background of primary ones - this combination should be the reason for contacting a doctor.By the way, there is no connection between the occurrence of these secondary symptoms and the consumption of food or alcohol.

How to treat bowel cancer

If the disease in question was diagnosed at an early stage of development, then doctors believe the best treatment is a surgical intervention.But such a development of events is fixed by physicians very rarely - as mentioned above, the primary signs of intestinal cancer are few who are worried.

If the malignant cells spread to the body outside the intestine, the following measures can be taken as part of the treatment:

1. When detecting metastases in the liver, doctors prescribe the introduction of monoclonal antibodies - they are part of chemotherapeutic drugs.
2. Specialists often prescribe radiotherapy - this helps to reduce an already growing malignant tumor and relieves the patient of an intense pain syndrome.

Please note: radiotherapy is absolutely useless for treating bowel cancer, but it helps to block the pain very well.This method of treatment provokes the development of severe diarrhea( the stool can recover only a few weeks after the procedure) and fatigue.

1. Doctors are increasingly using in the treatment of intestinal cancer and the biological method - the patient is injected with medications that help stop the growth of a malignant tumor.If they are used competently, the patient's life expectancy can be increased by 20%.

Even experienced oncologists may have difficulty in choosing the treatment method for the disease in question.This situation is aggravated by the condition of the patient - he has a strong fear for his own life, so he has the right to know absolutely everything about the forthcoming procedures and the expected results.If a person is diagnosed with bowel cancer, then he has the full right to visit not only his own doctor, but also specialists in other clinics.This will help to gather the opinions of the doctors together and develop a competent, effective tactic of conducting therapy in relation to the disease in question.

Tsygankova Yana Aleksandrovna, medical reviewer, therapist of the highest qualification category