What are the symptoms of colon cancer

Colorectal cancer is a malignant tumor of the digestive tract that seriously affects the patient's physical and mental health. Colorectal cancer patients often have no obvious symptoms in the early stages and only feel mild digestive discomfort, so they often neglect treatment. So what are the symptoms of colorectal cancer? Below I will introduce to you the common clinical manifestations of colorectal cancer.

1. Right colon cancer

The main clinical symptoms of right colon cancer are loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, anemia, fatigue, and abdominal pain. Right colon cancer causes iron deficiency anemia, which manifests as fatigue, weakness, shortness of breath, and other symptoms. Because the right colon has a wide intestinal cavity, abdominal symptoms will not appear until the tumor grows to a certain size. This is also one of the main reasons why the tumor is diagnosed at a late stage.

2. Left colon cancer

The left colon cavity is narrower than the right colon cavity, and left colon cancer is more likely to cause complete or partial intestinal obstruction. Intestinal obstruction leads to changes in bowel habits, constipation, blood in the stool, diarrhea, abdominal pain, abdominal cramps, bloating, etc. Stool with fresh blood indicates that the tumor is located at the end of the left colon or rectum. The disease is often diagnosed earlier than right colon cancer.

3. Rectal cancer

The main clinical symptoms of rectal cancer are blood in the stool, changes in bowel habits, and obstruction. Patients with lower tumors and harder feces are easily rubbed by feces and bleed. The bleeding is mostly bright red or dark red, not mixed with formed feces or attached to the surface of the feces column. It is misdiagnosed as "hemorrhoids". Irritation of bleeding lesions and secondary infection of tumor ulcers constantly cause defecation reflexes, which are easily misdiagnosed as "enteritis" or "bacillary dysentery". Those with ring-shaped tumor growth will narrow the intestinal cavity, which is manifested as deformation and thinning of the feces column in the early stage and incomplete obstruction in the late stage.

4. Tumor Infiltration and Metastasis

The most common form of infiltration of colorectal cancer is local invasion, where the tumor invades surrounding tissues or organs, causing corresponding clinical symptoms. Anal incontinence and persistent pain in the lower abdomen and lumbosacral region are caused by rectal cancer invading the sacral plexus. Tumor cells implant and metastasize to the abdominal and pelvic cavity, forming corresponding symptoms and signs. Rectal examination can palpate lumps in the bladder-rectal pouch or the uterine-rectal pouch. The tumor implants and metastasizes extensively in the abdominal and pelvic cavity, forming peritoneal effusion. There are two main ways for distant metastasis of colorectal cancer: lymphatic metastasis and hematogenous metastasis. Tumor cells metastasize to lymph nodes through lymphatic vessels, and can also metastasize to the liver, lungs, bones and other parts through the bloodstream.

Through the introduction of the above content, I believe that everyone has a clearer understanding of the clinical symptoms of colorectal cancer. The symptoms of colorectal cancer are not single and fixed. Its specific clinical manifestations are related to the site of the patient's lesion. I hope that patients with digestive tract diseases will adjust their eating habits as soon as possible and have regular physical examinations. I wish everyone can stay away from the trouble of colorectal cancer.