Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute & Research Centre

Hello,

I am Dr. Varun Goyal. Today I am going to discuss the colon cancer. It is one of the most common cancers overall and according to our institutional data, it is the sixth most common cancer. What is colon cancer? Colon cancer is if cancer develops in the colon region that is the intestine region. It is usually an aggressive kind of tumor. It may go to other body parts as well and it may harm them. What are the symptoms of colon cancer? If there is any patient of colon cancer then he should go to doctor for the checkup so that the disease can be diagnosed in early stage and further management can be done timely. In the patient of colon cancer, there is a difference in bowel movement like patient may have the complaint of constipation or diarrhea. The patient may have a complaint of blood in stools. He may have a complaint of pain while defecation. There may be symptoms of anemia that is blood loss. There maybe symptom of weight loss, significant weight loss. There might be swelling anywhere in the body. Body pains and abdominal pains.

So if these symptoms occur then patient should go to physician or oncologist for the further checkup and for the management accordingly. So these are the symptoms. What should be the prevention? Prevention is better than cure. First of all, we should go to a doctor on a regular visit for follow-up examination and treatment investigation. If any significant family history of colon cancer or in any patient in an individual more than 50 years of age we should do regular checkup. Colonoscopy can be done to detect the colon cancer in early stage and in some patient we may go for sigmoidoscopy and fecal blood tests like fecal occult blood test and fecal immunochemistry.

So by these test, we may find cancer at early stage. Besides this, we should have good lifestyle habits like we should avoid addictions like smoking and alcohol. Alcohol intake should be limited and smoking should be a big no because it may increase the risk of colon cancer very highly. We should eat a healthy diet and fruits vegetables. A normal balanced diet full of antioxidants and vitamins. We should avoid junk food. We should take proper liquids per day. We should take proper prevention and good lifestyle habits. But even after that unfortunately, if the patient develops these symptoms and diagnosed in early-stage colon cancer then he should go to oncologist and should get treatment accordingly to cure this disease.

Thank you!