What is bowel cancer?
What are its symptoms, causes, and treatment methods?
You can find all of these questions and answers in the article.
In the following, let us know the most important information and details about bowel cancer:
What is meant by bowel cancer?
Bowel cancer is a general term to describe cancer that begins in the large intestine and sometimes in the small intestine, depending on where cancer originates from, but small bowel cancer is much rarer than large and is sometimes called colon or rectal cancer.
Bowel cancer symptoms
You may not feel the symptoms of bowel cancer, but these are common signs that you should watch out for:
The appearance of blood in the stool is associated with the symptoms of hemorrhoids.
Blood in the stool without other symptoms of hemorrhoids, such as pain, itching, swelling, or a lump hanging down outside the anus.
A change in bowel habits causes frequent toileting and looser stools.
Constant bloating and abdominal pain caused by eating, lead to reduced food intake and weight loss.
It is worth noting that medical advice should be sought as soon as these symptoms are noticed, regardless of their severity or age.
Bowel cancer causes
There is no main cause of bowel cancer, but there are several factors that may increase the risk of its occurrence, most notably the following:
Age: About 9 out of 10 cases of bowel cancer occur in people over the age of 60.
Diet: An unhealthy diet based on processed meats and low in fiber can increase the risk of bowel cancer.
Weight: Bowel cancer is more common in people who are overweight or obese.
Physical activity: Lack of exercise and laziness increase the risk of developing bowel cancer.
Unhealthy habits: Drinking alcohol and smoking increases the chance of developing bowel cancer.
Family history: If there is a relative, such as a mother, father, brother, or sister, who developed bowel cancer before the age of 50 years, the chance of other family members having the same disease increases.
Having diseases in the digestive system: People who suffer from inflammatory bowel diseases for more than 10 years without receiving proper treatment have an increased risk of developing bowel cancer, such as:
Severe ulcerative colitis.
Regional inflammatory bowel disease is known as Crohn's disease.
Bowel Cancer Diagnosis
Bowel cancer is diagnosed in several ways, including:
A simple clinical examination of the lower abdomen by a doctor; To make sure there are no lumps.
A blood test to check for iron deficiency anemia, which indicates whether there is bleeding from the intestines that the patient is not aware of.
Stool blood test.
Intestinal X-ray.
Magnetic resonance imaging.
endoscopy;
Bowel cancer treatment
Bowel cancer can be treated depending on where the cancer is in the intestine and how far it has spread:
Surgery: To remove cancerous tumors from the intestine, this treatment is used for many diseases.
Chemotherapy: Injectable chemotherapy is used; to kill cancer cells.
Radiation therapy: Radiation is used to kill cancer cells.
Biological therapies: A new type of drug that increases the effectiveness of chemotherapy and prevents the spread of cancer.
It's worth noting that the chance of a full cure for bowel cancer depends on how advanced it is when it's diagnosed.
If the cancer is confined to the bowel, surgery is usually able to remove it completely.