The nation recently mourned the loss of Dr. Balaji Sadasivan who passed away a week ago. While our thoughts and prayers are with his family through these trying times, let us take a closer look at his cause of death – colon cancer.
Definition
Colorectal cancer, better known as colon cancer, is cancer that occurs in the colon or rectum. The colon is the large intestine or large bowel. The rectum is the passageway that connects the colon to the anus.
Colon cancer, when discovered early, is highly treatable. Even if it spreads into nearby lymph nodes, surgical treatment followed by chemotherapy is highly successful. In the most difficult cases — when the cancer has metastasized to the liver, lungs or other sites — treatment can prolong and add to the quality of life.
Colorectal cancer affects both men and women of all racial and ethnic groups, and is most often found in people aged 50 years or older. For men, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer after prostate and lung cancers. For women, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer after breast and lung cancers.
Colorectal cancer screening saves lives. Screening can find precancerous polyps—abnormal growths in the colon or rectum—so that they can be removed before turning into cancer. Screening also helps find colorectal cancer at an early stage, when treatment often leads to a cure.
Perhaps one of the more alarming facts regarding colon cancer is that it is not easily detected during its earlier stages.
Signs & Symptoms
These include:
• bleeding in the stool that is often painless
• change in bowel habits
• persistent diarrhoea
• mucus in the stool
• reduction of stool calibre
• a recurrent need to defaecate (tenesmus)
• anaemia
• an incidental abdominal mass
• unexplained weight loss
• fatigue
• the feeling that your bowel isn’t completely emptying
It is important to know what to watch out for, especially if your lifestyle puts you at high risk of being afflicted with the condition. Some of the signs and symptoms of colon cancer are a change in bowel habits (e.g. experiencing diarrhea, constipation or a change in the consistency of your stool for more than two weeks), rectal bleeding, and persistent abdominal discomfort (including pain, cramps, and gas).
Risk Factors
Reviewing your family history and current lifestyle may help you determine if you are at risk of developing the condition. Other risk factors include older age (most people stricken with color cancer are older than 50), a sedentary lifestyle, obesity, smoking, and alcohol. If you can relate to any of these risk factors, you should know that these increase your chances of developing the disease.
Raising Awareness
Everybody knows about lung cancer, breast cancer and the other more prominent types of cancers. Having said that, are you aware of huge disparity in terms of awareness between colon cancer and other types of cancers? It has become the most common cancer in Singapore with almost a thousand new cases diagnosed annually over the last few years. It is only second to breast cancer in the female and lung cancer in the male.
Conclusion
The seriousness of colon cancer cannot be overstated. It is one of the most common types of cancer in Singapore but one gets the feeling that people are still not aware of it. This certainly is a cause for alarm not because it is more dangerous than the others, but because of the lack of community awareness among Singaporeans regarding colon cancer.
Definition
Colorectal cancer, better known as colon cancer, is cancer that occurs in the colon or rectum. The colon is the large intestine or large bowel. The rectum is the passageway that connects the colon to the anus.
Colon cancer, when discovered early, is highly treatable. Even if it spreads into nearby lymph nodes, surgical treatment followed by chemotherapy is highly successful. In the most difficult cases — when the cancer has metastasized to the liver, lungs or other sites — treatment can prolong and add to the quality of life.
Colorectal cancer affects both men and women of all racial and ethnic groups, and is most often found in people aged 50 years or older. For men, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer after prostate and lung cancers. For women, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer after breast and lung cancers.
Colorectal cancer screening saves lives. Screening can find precancerous polyps—abnormal growths in the colon or rectum—so that they can be removed before turning into cancer. Screening also helps find colorectal cancer at an early stage, when treatment often leads to a cure.
Perhaps one of the more alarming facts regarding colon cancer is that it is not easily detected during its earlier stages.
Signs & Symptoms
These include:
• bleeding in the stool that is often painless
• change in bowel habits
• persistent diarrhoea
• mucus in the stool
• reduction of stool calibre
• a recurrent need to defaecate (tenesmus)
• anaemia
• an incidental abdominal mass
• unexplained weight loss
• fatigue
• the feeling that your bowel isn’t completely emptying
It is important to know what to watch out for, especially if your lifestyle puts you at high risk of being afflicted with the condition. Some of the signs and symptoms of colon cancer are a change in bowel habits (e.g. experiencing diarrhea, constipation or a change in the consistency of your stool for more than two weeks), rectal bleeding, and persistent abdominal discomfort (including pain, cramps, and gas).
Risk Factors
Reviewing your family history and current lifestyle may help you determine if you are at risk of developing the condition. Other risk factors include older age (most people stricken with color cancer are older than 50), a sedentary lifestyle, obesity, smoking, and alcohol. If you can relate to any of these risk factors, you should know that these increase your chances of developing the disease.
Raising Awareness
Everybody knows about lung cancer, breast cancer and the other more prominent types of cancers. Having said that, are you aware of huge disparity in terms of awareness between colon cancer and other types of cancers? It has become the most common cancer in Singapore with almost a thousand new cases diagnosed annually over the last few years. It is only second to breast cancer in the female and lung cancer in the male.
Conclusion
The seriousness of colon cancer cannot be overstated. It is one of the most common types of cancer in Singapore but one gets the feeling that people are still not aware of it. This certainly is a cause for alarm not because it is more dangerous than the others, but because of the lack of community awareness among Singaporeans regarding colon cancer.
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