Appendicitis is a minor disease in many people’s minds, but surgical experts remind that sometimes it is not a simple sign of illness, but a disease with an “ambiguous” relationship with intestinal cancer. Yesterday, Mr. Wan, a citizen, was lucky enough to have his colon cancer discovered in time for appendicitis surgery, and because the discovery and surgery were timely, Mr. Wan avoided greater health loss. Colon cancer was discovered during the surgery for acute appendicitis Mr. Wan, 49 years old this year, is a sales manager of a company in Nanjing. Yesterday, he was sent to the hospital for surgery by his family because of metastatic pain in the right lower abdomen, and after being diagnosed with acute appendicitis, the doctor performed appendectomy on him. However, with many years of clinical experience, the surgeon found a mass in Mr. Wan’s ileocecal region and found a suspected colon cancer during the surgical exploration. As of press time, Mr. Wan is recovering well from the surgery, and he himself feels that he is fortunate. Appendicitis is sometimes an early symptom of colon cancer, which can be easily misdiagnosed How can a patient with appendicitis be associated with colon cancer? Is this a coincidence or a problem that is easily overlooked by everyone? Many people think that appendicitis is just a minor problem, no big deal, but in fact, the relationship between appendicitis and cancer is sometimes very “ambiguous”. For example, appendicitis is sometimes an early symptom of colon cancer. Why does colon cancer cause acute appendicitis? There are various reasons, for example, the stimulation of the colon after the occurrence of colon cancer strengthens the segmental contraction of the colon, resulting in the increase of pressure in the lumen of the colon above the colon cancer lesion. When the pressure in the intestinal lumen continues to rise, this pressure difference is the most significant, which can lead to poor appendiceal drainage and thus acute appendicitis. The immune function is reduced due to colon cancer, which can also reduce the ability to fight infection. The wall of appendix is rich in lymphatic tissue and is a degenerative organ, which can easily become a breakthrough point for germs and invite bacterial invasion, causing infection. This is also the reason why colon cancer is prone to appendicitis. Due to the typical manifestation of appendicitis and appendicitis found during surgery, some inexperienced surgeons did not conduct detailed examination because the lesion of colon cancer was far away from the appendix, which led to omission and missed the best time for diagnosis and treatment. Often, when the colon cancer is found by re-operation, the lesion is already in advanced stage and the chance of radical treatment is lost. Patients with abdominal pain and constipation should have fecal occult blood test. Patients over 40 years old should be alert to the possibility of coexistence of colon cancer and appendicitis if they have a history of abdominal pain, constipation or black stool when they find their right lower abdomen pain. Such patients should not neglect to undergo fecal occult blood test, carcinoembryonic antigen, ultrasound, CT, colonoscopy and other items to clarify the diagnosis. After appendectomy, patients should also undergo regular checkups of these items. Among them, fecal occult blood test should be listed first. Doing so can help detect colon cancer at an early stage. After appendectomy, patients should be alert to the presence of colon cancer if the following symptoms occur: 1.After appendectomy, patients still feel abdominal pain, abdominal distension and continuous fever which may not be caused by infection; 2.After appendectomy, patients have increased abdominal pain and symptoms and signs of intestinal obstruction which may not be caused by intestinal adhesion; 3.The incision does not heal for a long time after surgery, and pus flows or fistula is formed; 4.Anaemia of patients after surgery increasing symptoms, significant changes in stool shape and bowel habits, and continuous or intermittent blood in the stool.