Hemorrhoids and rectal cancer can both manifest clinically as blood in the stool, and it is often found that many patients mistakenly believe that blood in the stool is caused by hemorrhoids and delay treatment, leading to very serious consequences. How to distinguish between them? First of all, the color of blood in stool: the color of blood in stool of hemorrhoids is bright red, while rectal cancer is mostly dark red or jam-colored with mucus. Rectal diagnosis is often impossible due to the softness of the hemorrhoid nucleus, while rectal cancer can be detected by finger diagnosis in the rectum and anal canal with a hard and unsmooth mass in the form of cauliflower or ulcer. Colonoscopy and pathological biopsy are the most reliable methods to distinguish hemorrhoids from rectal cancer.