How to diagnose early rectal cancer

Blood in the stool, weight loss, anemia, abdominal distension and diarrhea are all typical symptoms of rectal cancer. However, if you are careful enough, you will find that some anorectal diseases also have these symptoms. Therefore, if you want to know whether you have rectal cancer, you must make a good diagnosis of rectal cancer. So, how is rectal cancer diagnosed specifically?

There are many symptoms of rectal cancer, so the diagnosis of rectal cancer is very important. There are many methods for diagnosing rectal cancer clinically, but everyone should choose the diagnostic method carefully.
1. Medical history. Usually, doctors should first ask about the medical history in detail, which can often reveal the diagnosis of the disease. In normal times, if there are unexplained weight loss, anemia, changes in bowel habits, mucus stool, bloody stool, intestinal obstruction and other symptoms, the possibility of this disease should be considered. In order to detect the disease early, some people who have no obvious symptoms but have a family history of the disease, those who have suffered from multiple colon polyposis, ulcerative colitis, or have received pelvic radiotherapy or cholecystectomy, should be followed up and reexamined regularly.
2. Physical examination. In clinical practice, a comprehensive physical examination of the patient not only helps to make a correct diagnosis, but also can estimate the severity of the disease and the invasion and metastasis of the cancer. Local signs should pay special attention to intestinal obstruction, abdominal mass and abdominal tenderness. Since the vast majority of rectal cancers occur in the rectum and sigmoid colon, a rectal digital examination is essential. Whenever a patient has symptoms such as blood in the stool, changes in bowel habits, and deformed stools, a rectal digital examination should be performed.
3. Population surveys. After years of clinical observation, it was found that the incidence of the disease has increased year by year, the mortality rate is high, and the five-year survival rate is closely related to the Dukes stage. Since the cause of the disease is unknown, the improvement of the survival rate depends on secondary prevention, that is, early diagnosis of the disease. Early diagnosis includes two meanings: one is early detection, and the other is early diagnosis.