What you don't see might kill you!

"Silent waters run deep" they say. "What you don't see might kill you" is another way to put it. "Be careful of blind curves". These sayings are reminders that we should be more vigilant and sensitive to the things, people, circumstances and feelings that befell us. It's not always wise to assume.

Colorectal cancer is one disease that does not cause any symptom at its early stage. When they do occur, the most common symptoms are abdominal pain, occasional blood in stool or very dark stool, and a change in bowel habits, such as more frequent stools or a feeling that your bowels are not emptying completely. But since we often experience these symptoms, we usually dismiss them as something ordinary, relating it to the food we ate or the activity we did right after eating, etc. This is exactly what happened to an aunt of mine who kept dismissing an intermittent abdominal pain she was suffering from, only to find out a year later that she had colorectal cancer in advanced stage. She succumed to the disease 3 months after diagnosis. Scary, isn't it? A patient of mine recently diagnosed to have stage 1 of the condition said that he sometimes noticed blood streaks in his stool previously, but since he liked eating meat and spicy food, he thought it was just hemorrhoids. Colonoscopy showed otherwise. He is now under treatment.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in men and women in the United States. When it is caught in its early stages, it is easily treated and often cured. But because it is usually not discovered early, it is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States.

The exact cause is unknown, but most cases begin as polyps, which are small growths inside the colon or rectum. Colon polyps are very common, and most of them do not turn into cancer. Most polyps are easily found with fairly simple screening tests. Screening tests are tests that look for a certain disease or condition before any symptoms appear. In the case of colon cancer, screening tests can find evidence of polyps in the intestine. Sometimes the doctor can remove any polyps that are found at the same time.

You are more likely to get colorectal cancer if you eat a high-fat diet, smoke, or have a history of this type of cancer in your family. However, most people who get colorectal cancer have none of these things in their background.

Other, less common symptoms of early-stage colorectal cancer include fatigue and unexplained weight loss.

If your doctor thinks that you may have colorectal cancer, you will need a test, called colonoscopy , that lets the doctor see the inside of your entire colon and rectum. During this test your doctor will remove polyps or take tissue samples from any areas that don't look normal. Another doctor, called a pathologist, will look at the tissue under a microscope to see if it contains cancer.

Treatment depends on where the tumor is and how far it has grown into the wall of the colon.

In most cases, surgery is used to remove the cancer. Sometimes radiation and chemotherapy is also used. These treatments have side effects, but the side effects usually are manageable with drugs or home care.

Fairly simple screening tests can prevent many cases of colon and rectal cancer. Screening tests are tests that look for a certain disease or condition before any symptoms appear. Regular screening is recommended after age 50 for most people. If you have a family history of colorectal cancer, you may need to begin screening earlier than that.

Be aware that this disease do exist and it can happen to anyone!

Reference : Dr. Cynthia Tank. Healthwise, Incorporated.