Colonoscopy is not a substitute for fingerprinting Among the missed bowel cancers, 80% are rectal cancers. Rectal cancer is one of the diseases that endanger human health and is second only to gastric cancer and esophageal cancer in terms of incidence rate among gastrointestinal malignancies. The early symptoms of rectal cancer are not obvious, so it is easy to be confused with other diseases of the anus, which is often neglected. Many patients miss treatment because they do not pay enough attention to blood in stool, mistaking it for hemorrhoids or anal fissure, and then buy drugs from pharmacies for self-treatment, and when they are ineffective or in serious condition and then go to hospital for examination, most of them have reached advanced stage of rectal cancer. In addition, some doctors only limit the diagnosis to the result of instrument examination, or no further examination after examination to hemorrhoids, and are unwilling to do anal finger examination. As a result, precancerous lesions in the rectum, such as polyps and ulcers, cannot be detected in time. In fact, it is not difficult to confirm the diagnosis of rectal cancer. Most of the colorectal cancers are rectal cancers, and 80% of rectal cancers are in the middle and lower rectum, which can be diagnosed through finger examination. Finger examination is a simple and non-invasive examination with fingers, which can visually reflect the lesions in the anorectal area. Early stage rectal cancer lesions are usually limited to the mucosa, and the doctor can touch the slightly elevated nodules during finger examination, and the patient may not have any symptoms at that time. Only when the cancer develops further and causes secondary infection and ulceration, which affects the smoothness of the intestinal cavity, the symptoms will appear, such as constipation, blood in the stool, urgency and heaviness, abdominal pain before stool, thin stool with mucus, and unexplained pain in the sacroiliac region. Foreign bodies of different shapes can be palpated in the rectum through finger examination, such as polyp-like masses with tips and movable, or nodular masses with hard, irregular shape and immobile. If the finger sleeve is sticky with mucus, it indicates that there is a purulent blood discharge. Finger examination can detect 80% of rectal cancer, however, many patients hate this type of examination and find it disgusting. In addition, some patients think that they have already done colonoscopy and it is superfluous to do finger test again. Some patients find it hard to understand when they have had a colonoscopy and are found to have rectal cancer not long afterwards. He explained that although colonoscopy is very advanced, it is not a substitute for simple and convenient finger examinations. “Many rectal cancers are located in the lower part of the sphincter, so the colonoscope can’t stay here for too long and can’t be seen carefully! Abnormal stool color Beware of malignant lesions. In order to detect rectal cancer early, in addition to insist on annual physical examination, you can also observe your stool to detect the “alarm” of lesion in time. Blood in stool means lesions in the digestive tract, and the color of the stool can roughly determine the bleeding site, bleeding time and bleeding volume. Generally speaking, when the stomach and duodenum bleed, the blood passes through several meters of intestinal tract and undergoes various chemical changes, gradually becoming darker, therefore, if these places bleed and the amount is not very large, the stool should be black. Among patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding, about half of them bleed due to ulcer disease, and most of them bleed from duodenal ulcers. In addition to ulcer disease, gastritis, cirrhosis of the liver combined with rupture of esophageal or fundic varices, and gastric cancer are also common causes of upper gastrointestinal bleeding. The lower gastrointestinal tract includes the jejunum, ileum, rectum, and colon, and because the “journey” is short and the chemical changes are few, bleeding from these areas should result in red stools. It should be noted that both upper and lower gastrointestinal bleeding have a characteristic that blood and stool are mixed together. If the blood is not mixed with the stool, but only attached to the surface of the stool or partially deviated, or even dripping blood after the stool, this situation is suffering from hemorrhoids. Reminder: change in bowel pattern or rectal cancer Rectal cancer develops slowly, and it takes one year for cancer cells to invade one circle of the intestinal canal, and its early symptoms are often hidden. It should be reminded that the change of bowel habits may be the early signal of rectal cancer. Under normal circumstances, everyone has a certain regularity of bowel movement, either once a day or once every other day. After rectal cancer, the regular bowel habit changes: constipation, once every three or four days; diarrhea, four to five times a day or even more; or alternating constipation and diarrhea; or the feeling of incomplete bowel movement and poor defecation after defecation. This alternation of constipation and diarrhea is a very important alarm signal from rectal cancer.