How to identify colorectal cancer

The diagnosis of colorectal cancer is not difficult. The key is to make an early and clear diagnosis. To diagnose the disease early, you should understand its symptoms and signs. People with obvious changes in bowel habits and stool characteristics, abdominal pain, abdominal mass, fever, anemia, constipation, diarrhea, especially those over 40 years old, should be vigilant and undergo X-ray barium enema or colonoscopy as soon as possible to make a clear diagnosis. In addition, people with colorectal adenocarcinoma, family history of colorectal polyposis syndrome or hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer, and first-degree relatives with colorectal cancer or ulcerative colitis should be followed up for a long time and undergo regular colonoscopy.

The differential diagnosis of colorectal cancer is relatively complex, because the clinical manifestations of left-sided and right-sided colorectal cancers are very different, so they should be differentially diagnosed separately. Left-sided colorectal cancer needs to be differentiated from hemorrhoids, functional constipation, chronic bacillary dysentery, schistosomiasis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease (a chronic inflammatory granulomatous disease of the gastrointestinal tract with unknown etiology), colorectal polyps, diverticulitis and other diseases; while right-sided colorectal cancer needs to be differentiated from intestinal amebiasis (a parasitic intestinal disease caused by the invasion of the intestinal wall by Entamoeba histolytica trophozoites), intestinal tuberculosis, schistosomiasis, appendix lesions, and Crohn's disease.

In addition, older people who have recently developed intestinal symptoms or whose symptoms have changed should not be easily diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome to avoid missing the diagnosis of colorectal cancer.