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Colon cancer forms in the tissues of large intestine. The cancer is largely known as colon cancer or rectal cancer. Colon cancer and rectal cancer (forms in the last several inches of the colon), if found together, are called colorectal cancers.
This post gives a brief introduction of colon cancer, early detection, symptoms, diagnosis, diet, colon cancer prevention, prognosis, risk factors, colon cancer stages, and colon cancer chemotherapy.
Causes of this cancer are often not clear, however, specialists say that colon cancer occurs when healthy cells in the intestine start changing/altering. The body functions properly when healthy cells in body divide in a regular and orderly manner. A single cell, which gets damaged or gets cancerous, keeps dividing (even when there is no need of new cells) and starts spreading the cancer in the tissue and damages the nearby tissue. These cells can also travel through the other body parts.
Factors that can increase the risk of colon cancer
Test (tests) to find pre-cancer and cancer
Tests that specifially find colorectal cancer
Low fiber and high fat diet, such as, beef, pork, lamb, liver, hot dog or similar food increase the risk of colon cancer. The meat which has been cooked at high temperature releases certain cancer causing chemical. On the other side, high fiber and nutrition rich food, like, vegetables, fruits and whole gains help in decreasing the risk of colon cancer. The colon cancer can be prevented by the right food choices, a healthy routine and staying away from smoking and drinking.
The colon cancer has four stages defined by the number of abnormal cells:
Cancer takes place in the innermost layer (mucosa) of the intestine wall and has already spread to the upper layer of mucosa. It might be possible that cancer has spread to muscle layer in this stage.
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The exact causes of colon cancer are still unclear, however, there are some known risk factors. Risk factors are not really the colon cancers' causes but they affect the chance of getting the disease. It is not necessary that having a risk factor means the person will surely suffer from colon cancer. There have been several cases of colon cancer where person did not have any known risk factor but have developed the disease. It is actually difficult to determine how the risk factors develop the disease.
The causes and the symptoms of the colon cancer are still unclear, hence to come to a concrete diagnosis of the cancer, one cannot rely on the signs or symptoms. However, the risk factors like, age, smoking or family history of colon cancer should not be ignored. The person who has any of the risk factors should go for a screening to diagnose the disease.
There is a strong probability of colon cancer not getting detected in its early stages as there are no specific colon cancer early signs or symptom but with regular screening, it is possible to find the disease in initial stage. However, the risk factors and symptoms suggest that there are certain ways which can help to reduce the risk of colon cancer or completely prevent the disease to occur.
