Common Questions: Cancer
What is cancer?
What are some early signs of cancer?
Can cancer be cured?
How does cancer start?
How do you die from cancer?
Common Questions: Colon and Rectal (Colorectal) Cancer
What are the early warning signs of colorectal cancer?
How long does it take for colorectal cancer to develop?
Are colon cancer, rectal cancer, and colorectal cancer all the same?
Can you die from colorectal cancer?
Where is the first place colorectal cancer spreads?
Next Question
Cancer is a disease of abnormal cell growth. Cells within the body lose the capacity to stop dividing, and proliferate to the point that they invade normal tissue and impede the function of organ systems. It can occur in many different organs and types of tissue.
Blood in the stool, a change in bowel habits marked by constipation or diarrhea, fatigue, weakness, abdominal pain, bloating, and weight loss are among the early signs of colon cancer.
Some common early signs of cancer include unexplained weight loss, fatigue, unusual bleeding or discharge, a lump or thickening of the skin, fever, and/or drenching night sweats. However, it’s important to note that the signs/symptoms are often not the same between cancer types (e.g. breast cancer versus colon cancer), and even between patients with the same type of cancer.
Most cases of colorectal cancer begin as a polyp, and it may take as long as 10 to 15 years to become cancerous. For this reason, regular screening to identify and remove polyps is the best way to prevent colon cancer.
Some cancers can be cured. Cancers are more likely to be cured if they are caught at an early stage, before the cancer has had the opportunity to spread throughout the body. As screening and early detection have improved, along with treatment, mortality rates due to cancer have increasingly declined. The cancer death rate has fallen by 26% since 1991.
Colon cancer begins in the colon and rectal cancer begins in the rectum, but both areas are part of the digestive system. Because of this, cancers that occur in either area are sometimes referred to as colorectal cancer.
Cancer starts when genes within an individual cell develop several errors, or mutations, that keep them from controlling the process of cell division. It usually takes several mutations for a cell to become cancerous. Mutations may be inherited or acquired through age or exposure to carcinogens in the environment, such as cigarette smoke.
Yes. The odds of survival are highest for colorectal cancers caught at an early stage. For example, localized colorectal cancer that has not spread outside the colon or rectum has a 90 percent five-year survival rate, while those cancers that have spread to nearby or distant organs have 75 percent and 14 percent five-year survival rates, respectively.
All Questions
Cancer kills when it invades organs and prevents them from functioning, which happens in the later stages of the disease.
Colon cancer typically spreads to the liver first, though it can spread to other areas of the body, including the lungs and brain.
