The three major symptoms of left colon cancer

Left colon cancer mainly refers to the area where the descending colon and sigmoid colon are located. The left colon is narrower. After the human body chews food, it first goes to the right colon through the small intestine, then to the left colon, and finally to the rectum. When food residues reach the left colon, the feces in the field become dry and hard due to the absorption of water.

Left-sided colon cancer is mostly invasive, which means that the tumor grows in a circle around the intestinal cavity, causing annular stenosis of the intestinal cavity. Therefore, the prominent clinical symptoms are changes in bowel habits, mucus or blood in stool, and progressive intestinal obstruction.

1. Changes in bowel habits

Because the intestinal cavity of the left colon is narrow, when the feces enter the left colon from the right colon, the water is gradually absorbed and the feces become solid. In addition, primary cancer often grows in a ring-shaped infiltration, which easily causes the intestinal cavity to narrow, so patients often suffer from constipation. As the intestinal cavity at the upper end of the narrowing increases, the intestinal peristalsis becomes hyperactive, and diarrhea may occur after constipation, and the two often appear alternately.

2. Blood in the stool

Blood in the stool is also one of the most common symptoms of left-sided colon cancer. Because the left-sided colon cavity is small, the stool is solid. When the solid stool passes through the left-sided colon cancer, the friction can easily damage and rupture the surface of the cancer, causing bleeding. After bleeding, the blood in the intestinal cavity is mixed unevenly and is quickly discharged from the body. Therefore, it is common to see blood in the stool. If there is a secondary infection, it is often mucus blood in the stool or pus blood in the stool.

3. Intestinal obstruction

Intestinal obstruction caused by cancer infiltration around the intestinal cavity and stenosis is mostly partial intestinal obstruction, often with abdominal cramps, accompanied by abdominal distension, hyperperistalsis, constipation and difficulty in passing gas. Partial intestinal ileus sometimes lasts for several months before turning into complete intestinal obstruction, manifested by abdominal distension, paroxysmal abdominal pain, hyperactive bowel sounds, constipation, bloody and mucus in the stool.