Understanding Colon Cancer

A bowel cancer is also known as a rectal or colon cancer. It is a cancer which develops as a result of an abnormal change in the cells that line the bowel.

Bowel is a term used for the muscular long tube which starts at the bottom of the stomach and ends at the anus. The bowel is divided into two parts, the rectum and the colon (the large bowel) and the small intestine (the small bowel, because the tube is narrower).

The small intestine is involved with the digestion of food and is free of cancer, strikingly! The large bowel contains the colon which is responsible for the absorption of water from the faeces.

Majority of the cancers develop in the colon. They are known as the bowel or colorectal cancers which arise from the cells that line the bowel. Almost 6 percent of the population in the Western countries develops a cancer of the colon at some time during their lives. This makes this disease the second most common cause of deaths related to cancer. Usually, this cancer is curable in almost 40-50 percent of the cases through surgery.

The cancer of colon develops when one of the colon cells develops mutations, a set of changes, in various genes, which control the function of dividing the cells and making them survive. This results in an uncontrollable division of the cells to form a clump of cancerous or malignant cells.

In the initial stages, these changes in the cells commonly produce a cluster of abnormal cells. These cells are pea sized and known as a polyp.

An adenoma, at this stage, is still pre- cancerous. At this stage, the adenoma may or may not become cancerous. In fact, probably only around 5 percent of the polyps may progress further to become a life threatening cancer. This is because the polyp enlarges very slowly. It might even take a time span of over ten years to enlarge a centimeter to five in diameter.

The abnormal cells invade the polyp stalk first. Then, it would attack the tissues of the underlying, to which the stalk is originally attached.

It is this invasion that indicates that the cancer has developed. Due to this development of cancer, the patient may suffer from various symptoms like diarrhea and bleeding. This would start from the ulcerated tip of the cancer caused by a disturbance in the activity of the muscle of the colon or to obstruction.

However, the symptoms of the colon cancer dont show until the disease becomes advanced. Therefore it is advisable to get professional assistance and go for regular check ups at least once a year.