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Rectal cancer
Early symptoms of rectal cancer
The early symptoms of rectal cancer generally include the following aspects: many patients experience changes in their bowel habits, such as prolonged diarrhea, prolonged constipation, or alternating occurrences of diarrhea and constipation. Some patients also experience changes in the characteristics of their stools, with stools becoming thinner and more watery due to increased bowel movements. Additionally, some patients may excrete stools mixed with mucus, pus, and blood, or stools that contain blood, and may experience a feeling of urgency followed by a sensation of incomplete evacuation. Some patients also feel itching or a dull pain in the anal area. Moreover, the early symptoms of rectal cancer are not very prominent, and many patients can easily confuse them with benign rectal diseases such as hemorrhoids and anal fissures. This confusion leads many patients not to seek medical attention, and by the time symptoms like significant pain and lumps appear, the disease is typically in its intermediate or advanced stages.
What is the best food to eat after rectal cancer surgery?
For malignant tumors and colorectal cancer, the suggested dietary recommendations after surgery include, first and foremost, consuming nutritious foods to replenish the nutrients depleted by the surgery and the tumor. It is advisable to eat more nutritional items. Secondly, after surgery for rectal cancer, it's important to avoid hard-to-digest and gas-producing foods such as beans, milk, and eggs. Thirdly, it is recommended to consume easily digestible items like soups and nutritious porridge. The fourth recommendation is to avoid spicy and irritating foods, and abstain from alcohol and smoking.
What are the late-stage symptoms of rectal cancer?
The late-stage symptoms of rectal cancer patients in clinical practice mainly include the following types. The first type is abdominal symptoms caused locally by rectal cancer. For example: bloody stools, pass stools with mucous and pus, anal pain, bloating, abdominal pain, and other manifestations. The second category of symptoms is those from metastases in various locations. For example, bone metastases cause bone pain and limb movement disorders. Lung metastases cause chest tightness, shortness of breath after activity, chest pain, breathing difficulties, coughing and coughing up blood, etc. Brain metastases cause headaches, dizziness, and seizures. The third category of symptoms is mainly systemic symptoms caused by rectal cancer lesions, such as: weight loss, fatigue, and high fever.
How to differentiate rectal cancer from hemorrhoids
Rectal cancer is a malignant lesion, with clinical symptoms mainly causing an increase in the frequency of bowel movements, changes in stool characteristics such as grooved stools or stools with mucus and pus and blood. Severe patients may experience abdominal pain, weight loss, anemia, and other accompanying symptoms. Generally, low-lying rectal cancer can be seen during a digital rectal examination or with an anoscope. If the cancer is located higher up, an electronic colonoscopy is needed to see the cauliflower-like mass. Hemorrhoids, on the other hand, are benign lesions often caused by improper diet or poor bowel habits, leading to pathological hypertrophy and descent of the anal cushions. They are mostly characterized by intermittent painless rectal bleeding with bright red blood, along with a feeling of heaviness and a foreign body sensation in the anus.
How long can one live after rectal cancer surgery?
The specific life expectancy after radical resection for rectal cancer varies among individuals and is dependent on various factors including the patient's general and physical condition, pathological staging post-surgery, and whether there are high-risk factors for recurrence such as lymph node metastasis, vascular tumor thrombus, and nerve invasion. The overall five-year survival rate post-surgery is approximately 50%. If the disease is confined to the submucosa and lacks high-risk factors such as vascular tumor thrombus, nerve invasion, or lymph node metastasis, the five-year survival rate after radical surgery can reach up to 90%. However, if post-surgery pathology reveals lymph node metastasis, vascular tumor thrombus, and nerve invasion, among other high-risk factors, the patient's five-year survival rate will decrease. Thus, survival rates are closely related to many factors.
Is a severely blocked anus a symptom of rectal cancer?
Is anal blockage a manifestation of rectal cancer? The answer could be yes, but it could also be due to hemorrhoids, or other diseases. The main common symptoms of rectal cancer include changes in bowel habits and the characteristics of the stool. There may be frequent bowel movements, diarrhea, or constipation, or alternating constipation and diarrhea, a sensation of anal heaviness, or associated with vague abdominal pain. Symptoms of abdominal pain, intestinal obstruction, and abdominal masses might also appear. When the tumor grows to a certain extent, an abdominal mass can be palpated, which might cause some compressive symptoms, possibly leading to anal blockage as one of the symptoms.
Can a colonoscopy detect colon and rectal cancer?
Colonoscopy can detect colon and rectal cancers. By conducting a colonoscopy, it can be determined whether a space-occupying lesion is in the colon or the rectum. In the workplace, it can also confirm the distance from the anus in centimeters, to guide the next steps of surgical treatment. If a colon or rectal tumor is found during colonoscopy, a pathological biopsy may be needed. Combined with the pathological biopsy, a diagnosis can be made whether the patient has colon cancer or rectal cancer. At the same time, colonoscopy can also detect other diseases, such as colon polyps, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease of the colon, and so on.
Is there a difference between colon cancer and rectal cancer?
Colorectal cancer includes rectal cancer and colon cancer. Its clinical manifestations may include rectal bleeding, changes in bowel habits, and changes in stool shape. It is named according to the specific location of the tumor. For example, if the malignant tumor occurs in the rectum, it is called rectal cancer. If it occurs in the transverse colon, descending colon, sigmoid colon, and ascending colon, these malignant tumors are called colon cancer. Colon cancer and rectal cancer are collectively referred to as colorectal cancer.
What tests are used to check for rectal cancer?
When clinical symptoms such as diarrhea or constipation, changes in bowel habits, bloody stools, and abdominal pain occur, we should be vigilant about the possibility of rectal cancer. The examination for rectal cancer can start with a digital rectal exam, especially for low-lying rectal cancer, which is closer to the anus; these tumors can be detected through this method. Then, a colonoscopy should be performed to take a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis, which is the gold standard for confirmation. Additionally, blood tests for tumor markers can be conducted. Generally, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and CA199 levels may be elevated, but this is not absolute as their specificity and sensitivity are not very high. An enhanced CT scan of the abdomen can also be done. In such scans, we can see thickening of the intestinal wall where the tumor is located, and the enhancement can show the intensified thickening of the intestinal wall. Combining all these methods can confirm the diagnosis of rectal cancer.
What medicine to take for diarrhea caused by rectal cancer?
Diarrhea is a common symptom of rectal cancer. For symptomatic treatment, we can take medications such as montmorillonite powder or loperamide to alleviate diarrhea, and use probiotics like Bifidobacterium triple or quadruple live bacteria to regulate intestinal flora. However, these treatments only alleviate symptoms rather than cure the underlying disease. The key is to control the rectal cancer itself. Treating the tumor is the fundamental solution. Only when the tumor is under control will the patient's diarrhea symptoms be relieved. Otherwise, even if the symptoms are alleviated by antidiarrheal drugs, if the tumor is not controlled, symptoms including diarrhea, rectal bleeding, and abdominal pain will recur and may even worsen.