Why is bowel cancer found in the middle and late stages? Reminder: These 4 types of high-risk groups need regular colonoscopy!
In recent years, affected by changes in eating habits, living habits, and aging of Chinese residents, the incidence of bowel cancer is still increasing year by year, and the number of newly diagnosed people reaches nearly 600,000 each year.
What is even more worrying is that the diagnosis rate of early bowel cancer in China is quite low due to the atypical early symptoms of bowel cancer and the low vigilance of the people, which directly affects the overall prognosis of bowel cancer.
Some related studies even pointed out that the five-year overall survival rate of Chinese bowel cancer patients is less than 30%, and the five-year survival rate of advanced bowel cancer patients is even less than 5%.
It cannot be denied that there are no typical symptoms in the early stage of bowel cancer, or the normal symptoms are very similar to common enteritis, irritable bowel syndrome or hemorrhoids, which is difficult to arouse the vigilance of patients.
Affected by people’s lack of awareness of bowel cancer screening and fear of colonoscopy , the early diagnosis rate of bowel cancer continues to be low. Most patients are diagnosed in the middle and late stages, and the treatment of middle and late bowel cancer is very difficult.
Therefore, from a clinical point of view, high-risk groups should pay attention to colonoscopy screening, especially the following types of people should not be ignored:
1. Have a family history
Bowel cancer has a certain family aggregation and genetic predisposition. If one of the first-degree relatives is diagnosed with intestinal cancer , or at least two of the two generations of direct relatives are diagnosed with colorectal cancer , then you have bowel cancer High-risk groups, even if they have no symptoms, need regular colonoscopy screening.
In addition, if there is adenomatous polyposis in the family, you also need to be vigilant. This is an autosomal dominant genetic disease . Patients may develop the disease before the age of 20. If not treated in time , the future cancer rate is almost the same as at 100%;
2. People with symptoms
As mentioned above, the symptoms of bowel cancer are not typical enough. During the advanced stage of the disease, patients may experience disordered bowel habits, constipation, alternating diarrhea and constipation, mixed bloody stools, abdominal pain and other symptoms, which are different from common chronic intestinal diseases. Very similar, prone to misjudgment.
Therefore, from a clinical point of view, regardless of whether these symptoms are related to bowel cancer or not, as long as there are similar symptoms, especially inexplicable blood in the stool, you should seek medical advice in time for colonoscopy screening;
3. Older
It has to be said that although bowel cancer is showing a younger trend, in clinical practice in China, colorectal cancer is still dominated by middle-aged and elderly people over 40 years old. will be higher .
This is related to many reasons such as long-standing bad eating habits, continuous development of intestinal chronic diseases, aging, and poor immune function. Therefore, as long as the age is over 45 years old, colonoscopy screening should be paid attention to;
4. Chronic intestinal diseases
The key thing to mention here is adenomatous polyposis, which has a relatively high cancerous rate. Therefore, as long as an adenoma is detected, the doctor will recommend that the patient undergo resection.
However, resection does not mean once and for all, because there is a certain possibility of recurrence of this polyp. Therefore, even after resection, patients need to be checked regularly.
Finally, I would like to emphasize that the purpose of colonoscopy is to understand the overall health of the intestinal tract, and to treat abnormalities in time.
Therefore, everyone should not be afraid of colonoscopy, especially high-risk groups should increase their vigilance against colon cancer, and regular colonoscopy is the best way. If you are really afraid of pain, you can also choose painless colonoscopy for screening if your physical condition permits.