Blood in the stool should alert you to rectal cancer

Ms. Wang is 67 years old. Three months ago, she found blood in her stool, intermittently. At first, she thought it was hemorrhoid bleeding, so she bought hemorrhoid ointment and applied it on her own. However, the bleeding symptoms were intermittent and sometimes better and sometimes worse. It was not until she developed mild anemia symptoms that Ms. Wang had to go to the hospital for examination. At the doctor's suggestion, she underwent a colonoscopy and found a new organism 5 cm away from the anus. The biopsy confirmed that it was rectal cancer, and it was already in the late stage of rectal cancer.

As a type of intestinal cancer, rectal cancer has subtle early symptoms and is easily confused with a variety of diseases. In addition, it grows slowly and is confined to a local area for a long time. Therefore, early detection can be cured by surgery. However, clinically, about 30% to 40% of patients are misdiagnosed due to personal negligence.

Some early symptoms of rectal cancer should be taken seriously by patients, such as blood in the stool. Early lesions of rectal cancer are limited to the mucosa and may be asymptomatic or only have changes in bowel habits. When the tumor grows to a certain extent, blood in the stool may appear. The blood is mostly light and dark and adheres to the surface of the stool. If red blood cells can be found through fecal microscopy, the fecal occult blood test is positive.

For patients with bloody stools or persistent occult blood in stool, the possibility of colorectal tumors should be considered first, and further relevant examinations should be performed to confirm or exclude the possibility of rectal cancer.