When it comes to colorectal cancer, many people think it is very far away from us. After reading the following two cases, maybe your understanding will change. Miss Zhang, 27 years old, has a cute little baby who is not yet one year old. In recent times, the stool often with blood, due to the previous has been hemorrhoids, Miss Zhang thought that the pregnancy hemorrhoids aggravated, did not put on the heart. Until recently, the stomach is more and more distended, a few days can not pass stool, only to the hospital for examination. It turns out that she not only has more serious hemorrhoids, but also advanced rectal cancer, the intestinal tube is completely blocked by tumor tissue, surgery found that the pelvis has metastasized, only abdominal wall fistula, permanent artificial anal defecation, quality of life and life expectancy greatly reduced. The 76-year-old He is very strong, but his stomach is not so good, often bloating, constipation, diarrhea, at first did not care, the elderly, poor digestion, constipation is normal. But recently, the stomach is getting bigger and bigger, and at first thought it was the body fat, and then He Lao felt that something was wrong, the stool actually did not solve half a month, the usual laxative also did not work at all. He wanted to take some more medicine to see, but only after his son insisted again and again to go to the hospital for examination, colonoscopy, colon cancer! Surgery found that the liver has metastasized, the obstructed colon is actually a bowl of thick! In fact, most of the colorectal cancer patients have had similar experiences, and even experienced the process from misdiagnosis to diagnosis, and few of them are really detected early. Getting closer to colorectal cancer in terms of awareness Although 40-60 years old is the high incidence age of tumor, cancer patients under 30 years old have accounted for 10-20% and have the characteristic of constant low age, and the literature reports the youngest one is only 9 months old. It is reported that the age of onset of colorectal cancer patients in China is about 12-18 years earlier than that in Europe and America, and rectal cancer is more common, while more than 80% of rectal cancers are located below 8cm from the anus, which can be diagnosed early with only rectal finger examination, but people often overlook this point. The development of colorectal cancer is slow and there are no obvious symptoms in the early stage, and the late symptoms are mainly in the following aspects: 1. Recurrent or alternating stool frequency, diarrhea, constipation, urgency, anal swelling discomfort and other symptoms. And gastroenteritis only appears occasionally. 2.Because of tumor breakage, blood will appear in the stool, which is easily mistaken as “hemorrhoids”. In fact, hemorrhoid bleeding mostly occurs at the end of stool, the amount is small, mostly bright red, and the bleeding is attached to the surface of fecal mass. On the contrary, tumor bleeding often continues throughout the process of defecation, the color is mostly dark red, if the tumor location is higher, the blood is often mixed with feces in jam-like, sometimes even mucus blood stool. 3. With the aggravation of abdominal distension and abdominal discomfort, paroxysmal abdominal pain, constipation and thin stool (such as pencil-like, sheep feces-like) will gradually appear. Difficulty in defecation and intestinal obstruction are the late manifestations of tumor, which means that tumor has occupied most of the intestinal canal and taking conventional laxatives does not work. But old age and habitual constipation can play a role in taking laxatives. 4. The appearance of anemia and emaciation is mostly the end of long-term consumption of tumor, which indicates poor prognosis. Of course, there is no cure for colorectal cancer, and early surgery should be pursued. The current “total rectal mesenteric resection” has reduced the recurrence rate of tumor to less than 10%, and the double anastomosis low and ultra-low anal preservation surgery has been matured, and any tumor above 4cm from the anus has the possibility of anal preservation. Moreover, colorectal cancer is the most effective chemotherapy among gastrointestinal tumors, regular chemotherapy can play an important adjuvant role, and the 5-year survival rate after surgery for colon cancer has reached about 70%, and rectal cancer can also reach more than 50%, and early stage tumors can even reach more than 90%. As with most tumors, the exact cause of colorectal cancer is still being explored, but the synergistic effect of diet, lifestyle and genetic factors is an important cause of cellular mutations developing into cancer. It has been shown that a high-fat diet can produce a large number of carcinogens during digestion, and the incidence of colorectal cancer is more than two times higher in those on a high-fat diet than in those on a low-fat diet, and is associated with foods rich in saturated fatty acids. Mediterranean residents and Eskimos have a very low incidence of colorectal cancer, which is closely related to their food fat from fish oil and olive oil (rich in unsaturated fatty acids); while the risk of red meat such as pork, beef or lamb as the main dish increases by more than two times, fish and chicken are relatively safe. On the contrary, dietary fiber, known as “scavenger”, can resist the degradation of digestive enzymes in the body and increase the amount of feces, which can dilute and adsorb carcinogenic substances and improve intestinal pH, inhibiting the growth of tumor cells. More than 60 independent studies by American scientists have shown that a diet high in dietary fiber can reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer by up to 43.0 percent. An average daily increase of 13g of fiber in food can reduce the incidence of colon cancer in the United States by 31%; garlic can also keep us away from the threat of colon cancer. In addition, proper intake of trace elements selenium, zinc, calcium, iron and antioxidant vitamins A, C and E also have a protective effect on the occurrence of colorectal cancer. A healthy lifestyle is also a treasure to keep away from colorectal cancer. Smoking, alcohol consumption, lack of exercise and excessive obesity are all risk factors for the occurrence of colorectal tumors. Small doses of daily aspirin can not only reduce cardiovascular disease, but also reduce the occurrence of colorectal tumors. Colorectal cancer has obvious family aggregation phenomenon, one of the close relatives has the disease, the chance of his or her own disease is more than doubled. Although genetic predisposition is something we cannot change, it allows us to be more vigilant and have regular checkups to achieve early detection and early treatment. Meanwhile, colorectal cancer often favors patients with ulcerative colitis, polyps, adenoma and schistosomiasis. As long as we actively treat the original disease and eliminate precancerous lesions, we can stay away from colorectal cancer.