Signs of Bowel Cancer - Bowel Tumour Signs and Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of Bowel Cancer are often not present in the early stages and as a result of this, the condition can present late sometimes ‘acutely’ as a bowel blockage or bowel obstruction. The early signs may include tiredness, going off food (anorexia), anaemia, weight loss, change in bowel habit e.g. diarrhea, constipation, mucus, wind, bloating and blood in the stool or ‘bleeding from the back passage’.

The problem with all these signs of bowel cancer is the fact that they can occur in other bowel conditions including IBS (although there is NO increased bowel cancer risk with this condition) and inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, both of which do carry an increased bowel cancer risk.

Who Is More Likely To Develop Bowel Cancer Symptoms?

Bowel cancer is a common cancer, but certain people are more at risk. It is most common in people over the age of 50 years (90% of cases) and 8 out of 10 are over the age of 60 years. It is slightly more common in men (1 in 18) in comparison to women (1:20).

However younger people can develop a bowel tumour usually due to genetic or inherited risk. The two main conditions are:

1) Hereditary non-polyposis colon cancer (HNPCC) which normally develops in people under the age of 50.

2) Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), a condition that usually occurs in people under the age of 40 years and is characterised by multiple polyps in the colon (often in the 1000’s).

These 2 conditions are usually distinguished by family history although not always, in particular adopted sufferers may not know their family history.

What Causes Bowel Cancer And What Are The Risk Factors For Bowel Cancer?

1) Age – as outlined

2) FH – as outlined

3) Obesity – poor diet and lack of exercise

4) Alcohol

5) Smoking

6) Exposure to radiation

7) Other medical conditions that increase risk, e.g. ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, Sclerosing Cholangitis.

What Conditions Can Mimic The Signs of Bowel Cancer?

Many conditions may mimic the early symptoms of bowel cancer and these may include:

Hemorrhoids

Anal fissure – tear in the anus

IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome)

Inflammatory bowel disease

Ischaemic colitis

Diarrheal illnesses e.g. infections, small bowel diseases and many more!

How can Bowel Cancer be prevented?

Bowel cancer survivability depends on many different factors particularly as the early symptoms of bowel cancer are often infrequent, but by far the best way is by prevention in the first place. To understand this, you have to have awareness of the natural development of this cancer. Most bowel cancers develop from colon polyps or adenomas. These are ‘cherry-like’ protuberances that develop in the bowel and as they grow, they change into pre-cancer polyps or ‘dysplastic polyps’ and then cancer. These polyps can cause bleeding, one example of a variety of bowel cancer symptoms. An example of a colon polyp can be seen here:

What Is The treatment For Bowel Cancer?

The main treatment for bowel cancer is surgery although depending on stage of disease other treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy maybe employed. Staging of the disease is dependent on the degree of spread and is classified according to the TNM or Tumor, Node, Metastasis stage. It is this staging system that can give you a statistical chance of survival as outlined:

Colon cancer stage 1 - 93% 5 year survival

Colon cancer stage 2a - 85% 5 year survival

Colon cancer stage 2b - 72% 5 year survival

Colon cancer stage 3a - 83% 5 year survival

Colon cancer stage 3b - 64% 5 year survival

Colon cancer stage 3c - 44% 5 year survival

Colon cancer stage 4 - 8% 5 year survival

How Can I Prevent Bowel Cancer And Bowel Cancer Symptoms?

Prevention is always better than cure. You can lower your risk of developing the disease by adopting a healthy lifestyle (smoking cessation, reduce alcohol intake, diet and exercise) and seeking medical advice at an early stage if you develop any of the signs of bowel cancer already described, but listed again for convenience:

Signs of Bowel cancer:

1) Tiredness

2) Off food (anorexia)

3) Weight loss

4) Change in bowel habit (diarrhea, constipation, bleeding, bloating, wind).

In summary, signs of bowel cancer in the early stages will allow early diagnosis, increase bowel cancer survivability and reduce deaths in this very common cancer, particularly in conjunction with bowel cancer screening and surveillance. If you are concerned that you might have signs of bowel cancer, get them checked as soon as possible.

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