Unexplained anemia should alert you to right colon cancer

In the early stages of a tumor, there are often no special symptoms, or even no symptoms at all. This affects the patient's timely and proactive medical treatment. Sometimes, even though obvious symptoms or even typical clinical manifestations appear, they are not recognized by doctors, resulting in delayed diagnosis and treatment, affecting prognosis. Let's take a look at the following examples:

Patient Shen, male, 64 years old

In January 1996, he developed abdominal discomfort, dull pain when deep pressure was applied to the right lower abdomen, mild anemia, and hemoglobin of 90 g/L. Because of the history of cholecystitis, he was given anti-inflammatory and choleretic treatment according to cholecystitis, but the symptoms did not improve significantly. In May of the same year, he had poor appetite, fatigue, and aggravated anemia, and hemoglobin of 80 g/L. According to the "cause of anemia to be investigated", multiple laboratory tests (including bone marrow puncture) were performed, but the cause of anemia was not found. No abnormalities were found in the rectal endoscopy; abdominal B-ultrasound and CT examinations showed "splenomegaly" (he had suffered from malaria in the 1950s), so the anemia was explained as "hypersplenism". He took blood-raising drugs such as Red Heart K for treatment, but there was no obvious effect, and he had an increase in the number of bowel movements (1-3 times/day), aggravated fatigue, and weight loss. In October 1997, a mass was palpated in the right lower abdomen, and he was admitted to the hospital. He underwent abdominal CT and fiber colonoscopy, and the conclusion was "inflammatory mass". He was discharged after anti-inflammatory treatment. In May 1998, due to the aggravation of the above symptoms, he was hospitalized for the second time for "cholecystitis" and "cholelithiasis". Barium enema examination revealed that there was a narrow lumen of the ascending colon near the ileocecal part, about 5-6 cm long. The wall of the tube was stiff, the mucosa was damaged, and the proximal intestinal tube was dilated. It was considered to be ascending colon cancer combined with incomplete intestinal obstruction. On June 5 of the same year, right hemicolectomy and lymph node dissection were performed. Postoperative pathological report: ulcerative poorly differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma of the ascending colon, the tumor was 3*3.5 cm, invading the serosal layer, and 3/5 of the perianal lymph nodes were metastatic. The stage was KukeC2, which was in the middle to late stage. Chemotherapy and Chinese medicine treatment were performed after surgery, and the condition was stable.

The colon, also known as the large intestine, is an important part of the digestive tract. It can be further divided into the cecum, ascending colon, transverse colon, sigmoid colon, left colon and rectum. The right colon refers to the ascending colon and the liver area of ​​the colon, and the left colon includes the descending colon and the spleen area of ​​the colon. Colorectal cancer is one of the common malignant tumors in my country, among which rectal cancer accounts for more than half of colorectal cancer. The main clinical manifestations of colorectal cancer are: abdominal pain, abdominal mass, bloody stool, change in bowel habits, intestinal obstruction, anemia and fatigue. And each has its own characteristics depending on the location of the lesion. Among them, in addition to abdominal pain and change in bowel habits, anemia and abdominal mass are more prominent in right colon cancer. The feces in the right colon have not yet formed and are in a thin paste. The friction of the feces on the cancer foci of the intestinal wall will not cause a large amount of bleeding at one time, and it is often mixed evenly with the feces, so it is not easy to detect bloody stools with the naked eye, while long-term small amounts of bleeding often cause anemia. In addition, the palpable rate of right-sided colon cancer (70%-80%) is significantly higher than that of left-sided colon cancer (20%-40%). When the tumor invades the serosa of the intestinal wall, dull pain in the right abdomen may occur, which is easily misdiagnosed as an "inflammatory mass". Therefore, when colon cancer is suspected, it is necessary to promptly check for occult blood in the stool, perform double contrast examination of colon gas and barium, and even perform fiber colonoscopy, in order to ensure an early diagnosis.

As we all know, the two most important factors to improve the cure rate and prognosis of cancer are: early diagnosis and good treatment, that is, early diagnosis and reasonable and regular comprehensive treatment. To achieve early detection, the patient must first rely on himself. If suspicious symptoms occur, he must seek medical treatment in time. In addition, the choice of doctor and hospital is also very important.

Due to limited conditions, the first stop for patients to seek medical treatment is often primary medical institutions. This requires patients to be reminded that once they have doubts about the diagnosis or the treatment is ineffective, they may wish to consult relevant experts and never be careless.

Comprehensive treatment of tumors has made great progress. For patients in the middle and late stages and those with postoperative recurrence and metastasis, we still have confidence that as long as they can adhere to comprehensive treatment with radiotherapy and chemotherapy or surgery plus biological therapy, they can often achieve certain results in improving the quality of life and life expectancy of patients, and sometimes even achieve unexpected results.

The above is some knowledge about colorectal cancer introduced by experts. Expert Tip: If you have symptoms of disease, do not delay diagnosis and go to a regular hospital for treatment in time to avoid delaying the disease and causing serious consequences. If you have other questions, please consult our online experts or call for consultation.

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