As the saying goes, “nine out of ten people have hemorrhoids,” and many people don’t take hemorrhoids seriously in their lives. When you have blood in your stool, the first thing most people consider is probably hemorrhoids. Some patients don’t even go to the hospital, and after self-diagnosis, they go to the pharmacy to buy topical creams and apply them when they are uncomfortable. Unbeknownst to them, in this process of self-diagnosis, the terrible disease of colorectal cancer is neglected, and they do not think of seeking medical treatment until the obstructive symptoms such as thinning of stool appear, but the condition is already very serious by then. Treating colorectal cancer as hemorrhoids is a frequent occurrence. This is because the clinical manifestations of colorectal cancer and hemorrhoids have many similarities, such as blood in stool, feeling of anal swelling, and increased frequency of stool. Although the symptoms of colorectal cancer are easily confused with hemorrhoids, there are still some ways to help us identify them, mainly the following three tricks: 1.Firstly, the characteristics of blood in stool are different between the two. Secondly, colorectal cancer may lead to changes in bowel habits, such as thinner stools, more frequent stools or alternating constipation and diarrhea, etc. In addition, colorectal cancer is often accompanied by other symptoms. For example, abdominal discomfort, bloating or persistent vague pain. Due to tumor consumption, systemic symptoms such as anemia, weakness, weight loss and low fever may also appear. In the case of hemorrhoids, these discomforts are rarely experienced. The average misdiagnosis rate of colorectal cancer in early stage can be more than 50%, and the top three easily misdiagnosed diseases in early stage are hemorrhoids, dysentery and enteritis, which account for 85%-90% of the total misdiagnosed diseases. In particular, rectal cancer is easily confused with hemorrhoids when there is blood in the stool. Therefore, patients with blood in the stool, whether they have hemorrhoids or not, should visit the hospital regularly. In fact, many malignant tumors occurring in the colon or rectum can be treated very satisfactorily if they are diagnosed and treated early. In life, once there are suspicious symptoms such as blood in the stool and stool dysfunction, you should pay extra attention to them and not easily conclude that you are suffering from hemorrhoids, but should promptly seek medical attention from a specialist and do the necessary tests such as anal fingering, proctoscopy and colonoscopy. Those who are over 40 years old and have any of the following symptoms should be listed as high-risk group for colorectal cancer, and it is better to have regular checkups to be alert to the occurrence of colorectal cancer: 1. Grade I relatives with history of colorectal cancer; 2. History of cancer or history of intestinal adenoma or polyp; 3. Positive stool occult blood test; 4. Two of the following five symptoms: mucus and blood stool, chronic diarrhea, chronic constipation, history of chronic appendicitis and history of mental trauma.