How Do You Know If You Have Colon Cancer?

(Image credit © to ‘Hill Creek Pictures/UpperCut Images’)

When people talking about colon cancer (or also familiar known as ‘colorectal cancer’), “How do you know if you have it?” is one of the most frequently asked questions! However, it is serious disease that sometimes can be potentially life-threatening. You might also like to know about risk factors of colon cancer (factors or conditions that increase your risk of having this disease), before continuing!

Any problem in the colon can be potential to cause health problem, particularly for your digestive system - because as well we know that colon is one of important parts of the digestive system. What else you need to know?

What is the function of colon for your digestive system?

Colon (or also familiar called as ‘large intestine’) has a significant contribution to support the function of our digestive system. In general, doctors classify the function of this organ into 3 major points; 

1. It is responsible to eliminate feces (solid waste) from your body.
2. It has function to accept & store nutrients remain from foods that were not optimally digested in your small intestine. This is so useful for the body to optimally absorb nutrients from food that you eat!
3. And it is also responsible to find & re-absorb the remaining electrolytes and water from the indigestible food matter.

In essence, it has crucial function for the final stages of your digestive process. Without it, the body cannot optimally absorb water, vitamin, and other essential nutrients. Moreover, when your colon doesn’t work properly, you are at higher risk of have a lot of health problems, such as diverticulitis, constipation, lack of body’s fluid balance, etc.

From these explanations, we get a conclusion that it’s very important to have a healthy colon. Below is a helpful picture of colon anatomy:

(Image credit © to WebMD)

Cecum is a first part of colon that connects to the last part of your small intestine (or also called as ‘ileum’). And the rest of large intestine is categorized into four major parts; the ascending, transverse, descending, and sigmoid colon.

How does colon cancer occur?

In many cases of patients with colon cancer, the disease starts as noncancerous cells what we call as benign tumor. These benign cells usually occur for the first time in the innermost layer of large intestine’s wall. Doctors also often call them as polyps. And over time, these cells of benign tumor may become cells of cancer (malignant tumor).

Patients with earlier stage of colon cancer have a better chance to be cured than others who have later stage of this disease. In other words, benign polyps are easier to be treated than malignant tumor. You may also like to read about colon cancer stages!

Benign tumor usually don’t spread to other organs, even it also usually doesn’t invade the nearby tissues. On the other hand, malignant tumor can invade nearby tissue and also can spread to other parts of patient’s body.

So, we can say that diagnosing colorectal cancer as earlier as possible is equivalent to the successful of the treatment, and also equivalent to the prognosis of patient. It’s important to diagnose cells of benign polyps as earlier as possible before they become cells of cancer.

So, how do you know if you have colon cancer?

In most cases, there is still no clearly answer for the exact causes of colon cancer. Another bad news, most patients don’t notice any symptoms at early stage of the disease -- read also signs of colon cancer! Therefore, it’s reasonable if there are some patients who are diagnosed with this disease at later stage.

The most effective way to get to know if you have colon cancer as earlier as possible is by taking regularly screening tests! Since most patients with this disease are elderly people (older than 50 years of age), people should begin to take a screening test at the age of 50. 

But for individuals who have some /many risk factors of colorectal cancer or at increased risk of this disease, they should start their screening test earlier. For best advice, ask your doctor when you should start this preventive step.

And the following are some changes of lifestyle that may also be helpful to decrease your risk of having this colorectal cancer:

1. Keep on your healthy weight! It’s clear that overweight or underweight is often linked to some health problems. Moreover, many doctors believe that maintaining your healthy weight is very useful to improve your overall health. 
2. Do your exercise -- get adequate physical activity! It is also helpful to maintain your healthy weight and improve your overall health.
3. Keep far away from bad habits, particularly such as cigarette smoking and excessively consumption of alcohol. We all agree that smoking is very bad for health -- if you are smoker, stop it as earlier as possible (read also smoking side effects)! And for the consumption of alcohol, drink it in moderation!
4. Keep focus on a balanced diet, particularly eating a variety of colorful fruits, whole grains, and vegetables. These foods are rich in antioxidants, minerals, fiber, and vitamins which can be essential nutrients to prevent cancer.

Other health problems associated with colon!

Problems in the large intestine is not only associated with colon cancer. Travelers' diarrhea, colon polyps, salmonellosis, shigellosis, hemorrhage, diarrhea, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, diverticulosis, diverticulitis, and colitis are some diseases that also can affect the colon.

Furthermore, some symptoms of colon cancer may also be caused by one of these diseases. This is one of reasons of why diagnosing colorectal cancer is difficult.

More facts of colon cancer!

1. For the treatment, surgery is one of the common choices - particularly for the advanced stage of the disease. Sometimes, preventive surgery is also good option to prevent the disease in individuals who are at increased risk of colon cancer.
2. In general, the decision of a kind of treatment to treat the disease is closely associated with extent, location, and size of cancer, as well as the overall health and age of the patient.
3. Prognosis of this disease is good if the disease is diagnosed at early stage.
4. And did you know that in the U.S -- this disease is the fourth leading cause of cancer in women and third in men.

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Reference: MedicineNet, WebMD, and MayoClinic