Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment of Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer often begins as a growth known as a polyp. It is formed on the inner wall of the colon or rectum and over time become cancerous. According to the pathophysiology colorectal carcinoma belongs to the adenocarcinoma group of cancers. Like most cancers, finding the right cancer treatment hospital in India is vital.

Causes and Risk Factors for colorectal malignancy:
Inherited gene mutations increase the risk of colon cancer. A typical Western diet is high in fat and low in fiber can also cause risk in colorectal cancer. A great majority of people diagnosed with colon cancer are older than 50. Chronic inflammatory diseases of the colon, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease can increase your risk of colon cancer. Some other common causes of colorectal cancer like a sedentary lifestyle, obesity, cancer, alcohol can cause susceptibility to cancer.

Signs and symptoms of colon cancer include:

•    Change in your bowel habits, including diarrhoea or constipation or a change in the consistency of your stool, that lasts longer than four weeks
•    Rectal bleeding or blood in your stool
•    Persistent abdominal discomforts, such as cramps, gas or pain
•    A feeling that your bowel doesn't empty completely
•    Weakness or fatigue
•    Unexplained weight loss

Some screening tests used for diagnosis of colorectal cancer, colonoscopy include:

1)    Colonoscopy
2)    Flexible colonoscopy
3)    Guaiac-based faecal occult blood test (gFOBT): the test that looks out for faecal blood.
4)    Faecal immunochemical test (FIT) is also called an immunochemical faecal occult blood test

Staging of Colorectal Malignancy:

Staging is followed as per the TNM classification.

Stage 1: Cancer has grown through the mucosal lining of the intestinal wall and it may also have grown into the muscular lining and not spread to nearby lymph nodes. It has not spread to distant sites.

Stage 2: Cancer has grown through the wall of the colon or rectum but has not grown into other nearby tissues or organs and not yet spread to nearby lymph nodes or to distant sites.

Stage 3: Cancer has grown through the mucosa into the submucosa and it may also have grown into the muscular layer. It has spread to 1 to 3 nearby lymph nodes or into areas of fat near the lymph nodes but not the nodes themselves. It has not spread to distant sites.

Stage 4: Generally means that cancer has metastasized to distant sites, such as the liver or lungs.
Cancer may or may not have grown through the wall of the colon or rectum, and lymph nodes may or may not have been affected.

The survival rate of the patient, depending upon the stage of cancer and the spread we can determine the survival of the patient. A  5-year relative survival rate for people with stage I colon cancer is about 92% and stage  III colon cancer has about a 40 percent chance of cure and a patient with a stage IV tumour has only a 10 percent chance of a cure.

Treatment of Colonic Cancer:

1)    Surgery

Surgery is the removal of a tumour and some surrounding healthy tissue during an operation. This is the most common treatment for colorectal cancer and is often called surgical resection.

Procedures include:
a)   Laparoscopy surgery.
b)   Colostomy for rectal cancer.

2)   Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or cryoablation.

3)   Radiation therapy and chemotherapy are also used for treatment.

Colorectal cancer awareness:

March is dedicated as National Colon Cancer Awareness Month. A blue ribbon is worn to extend support for the cause.