Rectal Cancer 101
Each year, 150,000 people are diagnosed with rectal cancer. Talking about the bowels can be confusing, as there are different names for the same body part; for instance the colon and the large intestine. What is the difference between a rectum and an anus? As food passes through the body, it moves from mouth to esophagus, down to the stomach, into the small intestine, into the large intestine (ascending colon, transverse colon, descending colon, sigmoid colon), into the rectum and out through the anus. Cancer of the rectum affects that last six inches of the colon before food is expelled. Like early colon cancer symptoms, early cancer symptoms of the rectum are also highly curable if detected before the disease worsens.
The actual cause of cancer of the rectum has not been pinpointed, but certain risk factors have been clearly identified. Age is one, as 90% of colorectal cancer diagnoses come after age 50. According to the American Cancer Society, smokers are six times' more likely to develop colorectal cancer than nonsmokers. Family history also plays a role, for as many as 1 in 5 people with this type of cancer have family members who also were diagnosed with it. Inherited syndromes is at 5%, with inherited syndromes like familial adenomatus polyposis or hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer, and obese individuals are four times' more likely to develop cancer of the rectum, says the American College of Gastroenterology. Perhaps the biggest risk of metastatic colon cancer is the lack of early screening.
There are several stages of rectal cancer, which must be determined to recommend proper colon cancer treatment. Stage 0 is the early discovery of polyps, which are located in the innermost lining of the rectum. During Stage I, the cancer begins to spread into the inner wall of the rectum. By Stage II, the cancer has spread out to nearby tissue just beyond the thick rectal wall and in Stage III the lymph nodes of the body's immune system have been infiltrated. During Stage IV, the cancer moves through the infected lymph nodes to other parts of the body, like the liver and the lungs. If a doctor catches the colon cancer symptoms early, then the polyps can be easily removed for a 90 to 100% five-year-survival-rate. However, once the cancer reaches Stage IV, that rate drops down to 7%.
Surgery is considered to be the most curative treatment for rectal cancer. Early colon cancer symptoms can be treated with a local excision, where a tube is inserted into the rectum to remove the colon polyps (which is called a "polypectomy"). If the polyps are too plentiful or advanced to be nicked off with a wire attached to a flexible tube, then a resection and anastomosis may be done. During a resection, the doctor can remove portions of the rectum containing the cancer, along with fatty surrounding tissue, and simply reconnect the colon to the remaining rectum or directly to the anus (anastomosis). A permanent colostomy is a surgical procedure for the worst case scenario, where the colon is removed and waste gets taken care of through a bag placed in surgical opening in the abdominal wall. If the spread of the cancer is particularly bad, then chemotherapy and radiation therapy are often prescribed as complementary medical treatments.
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