What is the best food to eat after rectal cancer surgery?

Written by Gong Chun
Oncology
Updated on November 18, 2024
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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.

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Written by Yan Chun
Oncology
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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.

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Written by Liu Liang
Oncology
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Does stage II rectal cancer require chemotherapy?

Whether a stage II colorectal cancer patient needs adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery depends on the specific circumstances. For example, stage IIA patients are classified as T3, N0, M0. The necessity of adjuvant chemotherapy for these patients should be determined based on the pathological report. If the report indicates the presence of vascular invasion, neural invasion, poor differentiation, or if microsatellite stability testing shows poor prognostic factors, then such patients should undergo postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy. If none of these conditions are present in a stage IIA patient, then postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy may not be necessary. Generally, stage IIB patients, whose tumors have penetrated the full thickness of the intestinal wall, are recommended to undergo postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy. Therefore, the specific conditions of the patient need to be considered.

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Written by Yan Chun
Oncology
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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.

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Written by Wu Hai Wu
Gastroenterology
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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.

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The difference between rectal cancer and colon cancer lies in the location of the cancer. Rectal cancer occurs in the rectum, which is the final part of the large intestine, while colon cancer occurs in other parts of the colon.

Rectal cancer and colon cancer are collectively referred to as colorectal cancer, named according to the different locations where the tumors occur. Rectal cancer occurs in the rectum. Colon cancer includes tumors in the transverse colon, descending colon, ascending colon, and sigmoid colon, and tumors in these areas are called colon cancer. Both are known as colorectal cancer, and they exhibit similar clinical manifestations, including rectal bleeding, abdominal pain, and changes in bowel habits, such as constipation, diarrhea, alternating constipation and diarrhea, and changes in stool shape, such as narrowing of the stool. They are merely named differently based on the location of the tumors and are collectively referred to as colorectal cancer.