Intestinal cancer is lucky if it can be found early.
Intestinal cancer includes rectal cancer and colon cancer. If it is diagnosed at the early stage of the disease, it is indeed a blessing in disguise. Of course, almost all cancers are lucky as long as they can be found early. Because the therapeutic effect of early cancer is very different from that of late cancer, for example, if it is early cancer, the 5-year survival rate after radical operation can reach more than 90%, but if it is late cancer, there are often multiple organ metastases, such as lymph nodes, liver and lungs, which basically make it impossible to operate. Only conservative treatments such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy and symptomatic treatment can be adopted, and the 5-year survival rate of patients is only 10%.
So how can we find cancer in the early intestine?
First, be alert to the early symptoms of intestinal cancer
1, abnormal stool: If the habit of stool changes suddenly, or diarrhea and constipation alternate, it means that the intestine is abnormal.
2, bloody stool: For patients with intestinal cancer, the most important symptom is bloody stool. Bloody stool is characterized by persistent and chronic bloody stool with mucus, mixed with feces, and frequent defecation, sometimes only some blood or mucus is released without feces. If the lesion is close to the anus, the blood color is mostly bright red or dark red, and blood and stool are often separated. Only when there is a large amount of bleeding can the stool be seen as reddish brown and jam-like.
3, abdominal distension, abdominal pain: In the early stage of intestinal cancer, intermittent abdominal pain can occur, especially before and after defecation. Abdominal pain caused by intestinal cancer will often be slightly relieved through defecation or exhaust.
4. Loss of appetite: Colorectal cancer may cause tumors to adhere to the intestinal wall of the large intestine, thus reducing the digestive function of the intestine and blocking the large intestine, affecting the normal operation of the large intestine.
Second, carry out early screening of intestinal cancer
1, the method of early screening
Going to the hospital for examination because of symptoms is often in the middle and late stage of intestinal cancer, so screening for intestinal cancer in asymptomatic natural population is the most important way to find early intestinal cancer. Early screening methods for colorectal cancer include non-invasive screening and invasive screening. Non-invasive screening mainly uses fecal occult blood test, fecal immunochemistry test and fecal deoxyribonucleic acid test to judge the possibility of patients with intestinal cancer. Invasive screening includes anal digital examination and colonoscopy. Anal digital examination is mainly used to check the rectal perianal lesions. Colonoscopy can check the whole large intestine, and can make pathological biopsy of the suspected lesions, and determine whether there are malignant changes or cancer cells under the microscope. This is the gold standard for colorectal cancer screening.
2. Who needs early screening?
⑴. People with a family history of intestinal cancer: Those with immediate family members who have suffered from intestinal cancer are eight times more likely to suffer from intestinal cancer in their lifetime than others. About14 patients with intestinal cancer have a family history of the disease.
⑵. Older people: Most patients with intestinal cancer are over 50 years old. With the increase of age, the time for various pathogenic factors to stimulate the large intestine mucosa also increases, so the onset age of intestinal cancer is also higher, and some patients have an earlier onset age.
(3) People who smoke and drink alcohol: Studies show that smokers have a higher risk of developing intestinal cancer than non-smokers. Drinking more than 30 grams of alcohol every day will increase the risk of intestinal cancer.
The luckiest thing is not to have bowel cancer.
Intestinal cancer is a lifestyle disease, which can be prevented by changing diet and lifestyle.
1, adjust the diet structure: eat less red meat and processed meat products (bacon, ham, sausage, etc.). These smoked and cured processed meats are usually added with preservatives, which will increase the risk of intestinal cancer. Eating more high-fiber food, promoting defecation and reducing the damage of waste and toxins to intestinal wall cells can reduce the risk of intestinal cancer.
2. Change living habits: For obese patients, overweight patients, long-term smokers, long-term heavy drinkers and sedentary people, we should change bad habits, quit smoking and drinking, actively participate in sports and lose weight in parallel. Good living habits can reduce the occurrence of intestinal cancer.
3. Actively treat intestinal diseases: colorectal polyps, colorectal polyposis and inflammatory bowel disease are precancerous diseases of intestinal cancer. Most intestinal cancers are evolved from intestinal polyps, and it usually takes 5 ~10 years for intestinal polyps to develop into intestinal cancer. If we can remove rectal polyps under colonoscopy at the polyp stage, we can prevent the occurrence of intestinal cancer. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) should be treated actively because of its long course, easy attack, complicated condition, low cure rate and higher canceration rate than normal people.
To sum up, it is definitely unfortunate to have intestinal cancer, but the cure rate of intestinal cancer is relatively higher than other cancers. If intestinal cancer can be found in the early stage, it is fortunate, and it is the luckiest to have no intestinal cancer, so it is most important to prevent intestinal cancer.