Essay On Colon Cancer

Colon cancer symptoms:
The cancer of colon and rectum can cause many different symptoms. You may be completely asymptomatic also. It is important to seek medical help if you develop the following symptoms,
Rectal bleeding:
You may notice large amount of bleeding in the rectum or blood mixed with the stools. Many a times, people mistake it for “haemorrhoids” thus averting early diagnosis. This rectal bleeding may be hidden and chronic showing up as “iron deficiency anaemia” which in turn causes pale skin and fatigue. In such cases, a stool examination would be a wiser choice.
Diarrhoea and constipation:
The changes in consistency of stools can last for more than couple of weeks. Diarrhoea or constipation might develop that lasts for more days.
Bowel obstruction:
Bowel obstruction is a complication rather than a symptom. If the tumour grows big, it partially or completely obstructs the colon. The symptoms that signal bowel obstruction are
Abdominal pain which is very rare in colon cancer. This pain is mainly due to the tearing of the bowel causing leakage of bowel contents into pelvis causing peritonitis (infection and inflammation).
Abdominal distention- where the abdomen sticks out more than normal.
Unexplained nausea, vomiting
Unexplained weight
The right colon is wider and more flexible, relatively spacious when compared to the rest of the colon. So cancers involving right side tend to grow larger before causing any abdominal symptoms. Thus these right sided cancers cause anaemia because large amount of blood is lost before noticing and treating it. The left colon is narrower than the right colon. Thus left colon cause partial or complete bowel obstruction. The research suggest that the average duration of symptoms is 14 weeks. Also there is no association between overall duration of symptoms and stage of