Rectal Cancer is Dangerous & Silent Killer – Why?
Why Rectal Cancer is a silent killer?
United States alone registered over 40000 cases of rectal cancer out of one million cases of colorectal cancer each year. This cancer arise from mucosa and called Aden carcinoma a common type of rectal cancer. Cancer cells can spread from the rectum to the lymph nodes on their way to other parts of the body.
Causes for Rectal Cancer
The actual cause of rectal cancer is unclear. However, the following are risk factors for developing rectal cancer:
- Increasing age
- smoking
- Family history of colon or rectal cancer
- High-fat diet and/or a diet mostly from animal sources
- Personal or family history of polyps or colorectal cancer
Symptoms of rectal cancer
Rectal Cancer starts a precancerous growth called a polyp. Some polyps may turn into cancer a and penetrate the wall of the rectum.
This cancer may have symptoms are no symptoms. Once you observe
- Bleeding
- Obstruction
- Weight loss
have a medical checkup or go for routine medical checkup once you become aged.
How Rectal Cancer is Diagnosed?
- Fecal occult blood test (FOBT)
- EndoscopyIf rectal cancer is suspected, the tumor can be physically detected through either digital rectal examination (DRE) or endoscope.
Treatment
Rectal Cancer is treated depending on its stage of growth. 5 stages are identified and trated
If in stage 0
- Simple polypectomy
- Local excision
- Resection (when the tumor is too large to remove by local excision)
- Internal or external radiation therapy
If in Stage 1
- Local excision
- Resection
- Resection with radiation therapy and chemotherapy before or after surgery
If in stage 2 and 3
- Resection plus a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy before or after surgery
- Resection with or without chemotherapy after surgery
- A clinical trial of a new treatment
The stage 4 is called Recurrent Rectal Cancer and the treatment may be
- Resection with or without a combination of radiation therapy and chemotherapy before surgery
- Resection or pelvic exenteration, as palliative therapy to relieve symptoms and improve the quality of life
- Radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of both, as palliative therapy to relieve symptoms and improve the quality of life
- Chemotherapy to control the growth of the tumor
- Placement of a stent to help keep the rectum open if it is partly blocked by the tumor, as palliative therapy to relieve symptoms and improve the quality of life
- Systemic chemotherapy with or without monoclonal antibody therapy, such as bevacizumab
- A clinical trial of a new anticancer drug
Treatment of rectal cancer that has spread to other organs depends on which organ the cancer has spread to. Treatment for areas of cancer that have spread to the liver includes the following
- Regional or systemic chemotherapy
- Internal radiation therapy
- Surgery to remove the tumor with or without chemotherapy before surgery
- Treatment for areas of cancer that has spread to the lung or ovaries is surgery
This information of Treatment is an extract from the pages of cancer.gov
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