What is Colon Cancer

What is colon cancer? Colon cancer is a common malignant tumor of the digestive tract. The disease is common in middle-aged people aged 40 to 50. A high-fat and low-fiber diet is one of the main causes of colon cancer. The disease is very harmful. Everyone must learn more about the disease. Let us take a closer look at what colon cancer is.

Colon cancer is more likely to occur at the junction of the rectum and the sigmoid colon, with a male-female ratio of 2 to 3:1. The incidence rate ranks third among gastrointestinal tumors. Colon cancer is mainly adenocarcinoma, mucinous adenocarcinoma, and undifferentiated carcinoma. The gross morphology is polypoid, ulcerative, etc. Colon cancer can develop along the intestinal wall in a circular manner, spread up and down along the longitudinal diameter of the intestinal tube, or infiltrate into the deep layer of the intestinal wall. In addition to metastasis through lymphatic vessels and blood flow and local invasion, it can also be implanted in the abdominal cavity or spread and metastasize along sutures and incision surfaces.

Patients with chronic colitis, colon polyps, and obese men are susceptible. There may be no symptoms in the early stage, but in the middle and late stages, there may be abdominal distension and indigestion, followed by changes in bowel habits, abdominal pain, and mucus or bloody stools. After tumor ulceration, blood loss, and toxin absorption, symptoms such as anemia, low fever, fatigue, weight loss, and lower limb edema often occur.

If there is abdominal distension, abdominal pain, constipation or inability to defecate, physical examination shows abdominal distension, intestinal type, local tenderness, and bowel sounds heard on auscultation, it indicates that incomplete or complete intestinal obstruction may occur. If the tumor infiltrates and adheres to the omentum and surrounding tissues, an irregular mass will be formed. In the late stage, there may be signs of liver and lung metastasis such as jaundice, abdominal effusion, edema, cachexia, supraclavicular lymph node enlargement, and other manifestations of distant spread and metastasis of the tumor.

Colon cancer is a major malignant tumor that endangers human health and is also a common tumor disease in the digestive tract. Systemic symptoms may include anemia, weight loss, fatigue, etc. Cachexia may occur in the late stage. Lymph node metastasis is the most common symptom of colon cancer. Surgery is usually the main treatment. In the late stage, traditional Chinese medicine can achieve better therapeutic effects.

Early-stage cancers that can be cured by endoscopy can be treated with minimally invasive endoscopic treatment. The treatment of mid- to late-stage cancers is a comprehensive program that is mainly based on surgery, supplemented by chemotherapy, immunotherapy, Chinese medicine, and other supportive treatments to increase the surgical resection rate, reduce the recurrence rate, and improve the survival rate. The principles of surgical treatment: Try to cure the disease, protect the pelvic autonomic nerves, preserve sexual function, urination function, and defecation function, and improve the quality of life.