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Q: What are the symptoms of colon cancer? My husband is...

October 23, 2000|By Dr. Allen Douma.

Q: What are the symptoms of colon cancer? My husband is bloated and he complains that his stomach hurts a lot. The abdominal ultrasound showed OK for everything except for a slightly enlarged liver. He has a sleeping problem.He had hepatitis C. He sweats profusely with moderate exercise.

A: Your husband certainly appears to have some digestive tract problems, but it's quite a jump to consider them evidence of colon cancer. In any event, he won't know for sure without having the specific tests for colon cancer done.

The large intestine, or colon, consists of the ascending, transverse, descending and sigmoid sections. The ascending section is attached to the small intestine and the sigmoid section is attached to the rectum.

The colon is responsible for absorption of water and electrolytes from the waste material coming from the small intestine.

When waste material arrives from the small intestine, it is mostly liquid, but becomes more solid as it passes through the colon and fluids are absorbed. The material becomes feces as it reaches the rectum.

Colorectal cancer (cancer of the colon and rectum) is the second most common form of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in North America.

The main treatment for colorectal cancer is surgical removal of the affected section of the bowel. If the cancer has spread beyond the wall of the colon, chemotherapy usually is added to the treatment.

People with a family history of colon cancer are at increased risk of developing the cancer themselves. People who have had chronic digestive diseases that damage the wall of the colon, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, are also at higher risk. Diet seems to play a role in the risk of colon cancer.

Colorectal cancer grows slowly and takes a long time to produce physical symptoms. Those symptoms are different depending on the location of the cancer and its extent, but generally include fatigue and weakness and bowel movement disorders and pain. Of course, these also are symptoms of other digestive disorders.

However, colorectal cancer does bleed rather early in its development. As a result, blood in the feces (usually undetectable early by other than lab analysis) has become the screening test of choice for early detection of colorectal cancer. Needless to say, early detection is vital to successful treatment.

Furthermore, it is recommended that everyone have at least one "scope" examination (preferably colonoscopy that examines the entire colon) after age 50 and more often if there is a higher family risk or if blood is found in the stool. Results of analysis of tissue biopsied from the affected site confirm the diagnosis.

Treatment is based on how much the cancer has spread. The most common method of determining if the cancer has spread is to biopsy nearby lymph nodes and examine the tissue under a microscope.

Unfortunately, this examination may miss some lymph node metastases. The good news is that a new chemical test has been developed that is a better indicator of the presence or absence of colon cancer in the lymph nodes.

Although colon cancer is rarely the explanation for a person with abdominal bloating, my advice to your husband is to return to his doctors.

