How to diagnose colorectal cancer in children

The diagnosis of colorectal cancer is a very painful process for patients, because at this time, patients are not only suffering psychologically but also physically. Experts have suggested that children can also get this disease, so how to diagnose colorectal cancer in children? Let's take a look at the following introduction.

1. Laboratory examination

Blood routine, complete biochemistry (liver and kidney function + serum iron), stool routine + fecal occult blood and other laboratory tests can help understand whether the patient has iron deficiency anemia, liver and kidney function and other basic conditions. Testing for blood tumor marker carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) can help diagnose tumors. In patients with colorectal cancer, high CEA levels do not mean that there is distant metastasis; in a few patients with metastatic tumors, CEA levels are not elevated.

2. Endoscopic examination

Colonoscopy is to insert a fiber colonoscope into the ileocecal region at the beginning of the colon to examine the colon and rectal cavities, and perform biopsies and treatments during the examination. Colonoscopy is more accurate than barium enema X-rays, especially for small colon polyps, which can be removed by colonoscopy and confirmed by pathology. Removal of benign polyps can prevent them from turning into colorectal cancer, and cancerous polyps can help clarify the diagnosis and treatment.

3. Biopsy and exfoliative cytology

Biopsy is of decisive significance for the diagnosis of colorectal cancer, especially early cancer and polyp cancer, as well as for differential diagnosis of lesions. It can clarify the nature, histological type and malignancy of the tumor, judge the prognosis and guide clinical treatment. Exfoliative cytology has high accuracy, but the sampling is cumbersome, and it is not easy to obtain satisfactory specimens, so it is rarely used in clinical practice.

Clinical manifestations

In the early stage of colorectal cancer, there are no symptoms or the symptoms are not obvious, only discomfort, indigestion, occult blood in stool, etc. As the cancer develops, symptoms gradually appear, manifested as changes in bowel habits, abdominal pain, blood in stool, abdominal mass, intestinal obstruction, etc., with or without systemic symptoms such as anemia, fever and weight loss. Tumor metastasis and infiltration can cause changes in the affected organs. Colorectal cancer shows different clinical symptoms and signs due to different locations of occurrence.

1. Right-sided colon cancer The main clinical symptoms of right-sided colon cancer are loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, anemia, fatigue, and abdominal pain. Right-sided colon cancer causes iron deficiency anemia, which manifests as fatigue, weakness, shortness of breath, and other symptoms. Because the right-sided colon has a wide intestinal cavity, abdominal symptoms will not appear until the tumor grows to a certain size. This is also one of the main reasons why the tumor is diagnosed at a late stage.

2. Left-sided colon cancer The left-sided colon cavity is narrower than the right-sided colon cavity. Left-sided colon cancer is more likely to cause complete or partial intestinal obstruction. Intestinal obstruction leads to changes in bowel habits, constipation, blood in the stool, diarrhea, abdominal pain, abdominal cramps, bloating, etc. Stool with fresh blood indicates that the tumor is located at the end of the left colon or in the rectum. The disease is often diagnosed earlier than right-sided colon cancer.

3. Rectal cancer The main clinical symptoms of rectal cancer are blood in the stool, changes in bowel habits and obstruction. Patients with lower tumors and harder feces are easily rubbed by feces and bleed. The bleeding is mostly bright red or dark red, not mixed with formed feces or attached to the surface of the feces column, and is misdiagnosed as "hemorrhoidal" bleeding. Secondary infection of lesion stimulation and tumor ulcers constantly causes defecation reflexes, which are easily misdiagnosed as "enteritis" or "bacillary dysentery". Those with ring-shaped tumor growth will cause narrowing of the intestinal cavity, which is manifested as deformation and thinning of the fecal column in the early stage and incomplete obstruction in the late stage.

4. Tumor infiltration and metastasis The most common form of infiltration of colorectal cancer is local invasion, where the tumor invades surrounding tissues or organs, causing corresponding clinical symptoms.