What is Colorectal Cancer?
As the name indicates, Colorectal or colon cancer starts in the colon or rectum. These organs constitute the lower portion of the human digestive system. A colon is also referred to as the large intestine, and the rectum is situated at the end of the colon.
According to research, nearly 1 out of 22 men and 1 out of 24 women suffer from colorectal cancer.
To define the criticalness of cancer, stages are defined for it ranging from Stage 1 which is the earliest stage and less critical to Stage 4 which is the most advanced stage. Let’s know each of them in detail:
1st Stage Colon cancer:
In this, cancer penetrates the lining of the colon or rectum and is limited to only this organ and has not spread to walls of it.
2nd Stage Colon cancer:
Cancer spread to the colon walls but don’t affect nearby tissues and lymph nodes.
3rd Stage Colon cancer:
In this stage, cancer spreads to the regional lymph nodes and may involve nearby organs but not to other body parts.
4th Stage Colon cancer:
Cancer gets spread to the non-regional lymph nodes and distant organs of the body.
Symptoms
You may not experience the symptoms of colorectal cancer in the starting stage. However, some people might experience symptoms like:
- Long-standing diarrhea or constipation.
- Stool color will get changed along with the consistency.
- Blood in stool.
- Abdominal cramps and pain.
- Excessive gas.
Testing Options For Colorectal Cancer Screening
Several test options are available for colorectal cancer screening:
Stool-based tests like-
- Highly sensitive fecal immunochemical test (FIT) every year
- Highly sensitive guaiac-based fecal occult blood test (gFOBT) every year
- Multi-targeted stool DNA test (MT-sDNA) every 3 years
Visual (structural) exams of the colon and rectum like-
- CT colonography (virtual colonoscopy) every 5 years
- Flexible sigmoidoscopy (FSIG) every 5 years
Treatment:
Colon Cancer:
- Stage 1 Colon cancer: surgery only
- Stage 2 Colon cancer: surgery only and sometimes chemotherapy is also given after surgery
- Stage 3 Colon cancer: surgery followed by Chemotherapy
- Stage 4 Colon cancer: Chemotherapy + Targeted therapy, Immunotherapy. sometimes surgery is also done
Rectal Cancer::
- Stage 1 Rectal Cancer: surgery only
- Stage 2 Rectal Cancer: surgery only and sometimes chemotherapy is also given after surgery
- Stage 3 Rectal Cancer: Radiotherapy + surgery + Chemotherapy
- Stage 4 Rectal Cancer: Chemotherapy +Targeted therapy, Immunotherapy. sometimes surgery is also done
