colon rectal cancer

Important news on colorectal cancer symptoms. If you have high HDL cholesterol levels (good cholesterol), you might also have a reduced risk of colorectol cancer according to a new study.

If future work confirms this finding, those with low HDL (good) cholesterol levels should make changes to cut their chances of developing of colon cancer according to researchers.

Doctors know that lowering bad (LDL) and increasing the good (HDL) cholesterol lowers your risk of heart disease. This work gives you yet another reason to watch those numbers - staying free of dangerous colon cancer.

In this work, the experts compared 1,238 subjects with colorectal cancer to the same number of healthy controls. Of the participants who had cancer - just under 800 had colon cancer, with around 450 diagnosed with rectal cancer.

The team looked at blood samples and diet-lifestyle questionnaires filled out by the participants and found that subjects with elevated levels of HDL (good) cholesterol, along with another blood fat known as apolipoprotein A (apoA), had the lowest chance of developing cancer of the colon. There was no impact on rectal cancer rates.

For every 16.6 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl) rise in good cholesterol, colon cancer risk was reduced by 22%, while a 32% increase in apoA brought the chances of colon cancer down by 18%. For a small number of participants followed for over two years, only the HDL levels were associated with a reduced risk of cancer of the colon.

This particular relationship is independent of other markers in blood that are tied to cancer. Things like inflammation, insulin resistance and free radicals. But is it the HDL cholesterol or some other biological factor that comes with good cholesterol that's responsible for the reduction in risk?

The reduced follow up period, only 3.6 years, is considered a limitation of the research, though the study has been well designed according to experts who had no part in the research, and is the largest ever of good cholesterol and risk of cancer of the colon.

Cancer of the colon starts in the large intestine (known medically as the colon) or at the end of the colon, the rectum. The American Cancer Society points out that colorectal cancer is a leading cause of cancer related deaths in the U.S.

Nearly all colon cancers start out as benign polyps that develop into cancer over time. The good news is that finding the cancer early, at the polyp stage when it's small and hasn't had chance to spread, is a key to a complete cure.

The team speculates that good cholesterol's anti-inflammatory properties might be the reason for the finding, but understand that more work is needed. If other studies bear out this finding, it may be that HDL levels become useful in assessing a patient's colon cancer risks.

If you're worried about your own risks of developing colorectal cancer symptoms, the best recommendations are to try and achieve high HDL cholesterol levels by stopping smoking, being more active on a regular basis, get your weight under control and limit your intake of both red/processed meats and alcohol.

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Spotting colorectal cancer symptoms early is vital to the prognosis of the condition. In cancer, getting early treatment is very important. If the cancer has been spotted on time, measures might be taken to eradicate the cancer cells from your body. During the first stages of cancer development, your doctor might opt for surgery. This way, they would be able to remove the cancer cells from the body without harming your normal ones. Late stages of cancer would require chemotherapy and radiation therapy. This type of treatment would not only kill your cancer cells but would also affect your normal cells.

The symptoms of colorectal cancer usually depend on the location and the size of the mass. However, most of them are pretty much the same. So, how do we spot the symptoms of colorectal cancer? Here are the most common manifestations of the condition:

• Changes in bowel movements. Different people manifest different signs. For some, their stools are looser than usual. For others, they frequently experience constipation. There are also some that have reported not being able to defecate at all. Not being able to defecate for several days is what usually prompts them to go see a doctor.

• Bleeding. Bleeding is almost always a common symptom of cancer. This could be due to a variety of reasons. One would be because the tumor has swelled to a certain size and has ruptured certain capillaries or veins, thus causing the bleeding. Another would be that the tumor itself has ruptured. Bleeding in cancer may not always be evident. There would be times that you would really be able to see fresh blood but, more often than not, the bleeding might go undetected. Black stools are great indicators of intestinal bleeding. The black color of the stools comes from the mixture or blood with fecal matter.

• Narrow stools. Some medical practitioners refer to this as ribbon-like stools. This could be caused by the narrowing of your colon or rectal passageway. This narrowing is caused by the tumor growth in your intestines. Your stool would not be able to pass through properly, thus the change in their appearance. So, when do you get alarmed? If you observe that your stools start looking like pencils, or you start to notice that your stools look more different than usual, consult your doctor immediately. Do not wait for your symptoms to worsen.

• The feeling of wanting to defecate again after just defecating could be caused by a growth in your bowels. The feeling is caused by the mass bumping into the opposite intestinal wall. Your bowels' messages to your brain would cause you to think that this is fecal matter, and you would try to push it out.

These four manifestations would be the most common symptoms felt by a patient that is suspected to have colorectal cancer. When you notice that you are exhibiting these symptoms, consult your doctor immediately. This way, he would be able to recommend some laboratory tests so that he could make an accurate colon cancer diagnosis.

For more information on Different Types of Diseases, Symptoms and Diagnoses, Please visit: Colorectal Cancer Symptoms and Colon Cancer Diagnosis.

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The symptoms of colorectal cancer often present at a later stage of the disease. Usually, at a later stage, it would be difficult to treat the cancer and treatment of symptoms is a part of the treatment plan. It is said that the average length of time when symptoms show from onset to actual diagnosis is 14 weeks. Symptoms are often vague and actually bear no bearing on the extent of the tumor.

Initially, colon cancer like any other orm of cancer does not feel painful or present any symptoms. Lack of symptoms does not mean that the cancer is no longer present of spreading. One common symptom during the early stages may be due to the cancerous cells eroding blood vessels and nerve cells, causing a painful sensation. The pain may increase as the tumor grows.

Oftentimes colorectal cancer presents with symptoms which is relevant to the location of the tumor. Development of signs and symptoms also mean that colorectal cancer has spread to other parts of the body, a process we know as metastasis.

The symptoms may be generalized, or localized usually at the place of the tumor. The most unpleasant location that tumor my present itself is the anus. This may result in changes in bowel movements. How often you eliminate may change. You may have constipation or diarrhea The stools may be different as well. Stools may pass as narrow width, or thin ribbons. Afterwards, there us a feeling of incomplete emptying. This is due to the mass of the tumor growth in the intestine, creating a "full" feeling.

Bleeding from the rectum may also result, which will give rise to bloody stools. Bleeding in the stools may either present as black stools or tarry stools. Black stools would mean that the cancer is present in the upper part of the colon. The black material in the stools is blood which has undergone digestion in the esophagus, the stomach, the small intestine and in the colon. However, not all black stools are due to colorectal cancer. Black stools may also be seen in peptic ulcer, so that it is best to check with your doctor about your symptoms.

Bright red stool, on the other side present when the cancer is in the lower colon or rectum. This is because the cancer invades blood vessels and undermines them, leading to bleeding.

It is often impossible to see the blood using the human eye. The occult fecal blood test is used to determine if even a tiny bit of blood is present. This test is usually included in the tests that the doctor would order for a patient to diagnose a peptic ulcer or colorectal cancer.

Anemia can result from bleeding. This makes colon cancer patients looking weak and pale. It also makes a person lose weight and tire easily. The tumor.can give rise to the anemia. This is because cancer cells tend to take from the body nutrients and other essential vitamins and minerals such as iron. Vitamins, iron and other nutrients are often needed by red blood cells, so that if there is a deficiency of these vitamins, the body's red blood cells are destroyed in the bloodstream due to the cells being of poor quality and fragile.

Once the tumor spreads and grows in size, it tends to block the part of the colon. In this case, the belly may swell and grow in size. Sometimes a tear or perforation of the intestine can occur. The pain results from leakage of intestinal contents in the pelvic area, which the other surrounding tissue inflammation and infection that results. The resulting flatulence, inflammation and infection can cause nausea and vomiting.

Fever, hormonal changes and a condition where a clot in a blood vessel blocks the circulation of blood are other symptoms not usually seen.

The info offered in this article is NOT a substitute to licensed care and shouldn't be used for diagnosing or treating a health difficulty or condition. You need to talk to your health care provider in case you have or believe you may have a health problem.

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Based upon recent high quality clinical research, only Vitamin D, among all vitamins, appears to have potentially significant cancer prevention effects. However, as with all areas of clinical and laboratory research, one can find contradictory research results for Vitamin D, as well.

An innovative prospective clinical research study is now reporting its results, which appear to link Vitamin D deficiency to colorectal cancer death rates. As with previous research studies, the findings of this study strongly suggest that Vitamin D deficiency may be linked with a higher risk of death due to colorectal cancer. The findings of this clinical research study appear in the current issue of the journal Cancer.

An interesting and unique aspect of this particular clinical research study was its evaluation of the potential impact of Vitamin D deficiency on the well-known increased risk of death due to colorectal cancer that has been observed in African-Americans when compared to Caucasian patients. As our bodies create active Vitamin D from exposure of our skin to sunlight, and as people with darkly pigmented skin are more prone to developing Vitamin D deficiency, when compared to lightly-pigmented people, the authors of this study sought to assess the potential colorectal cancer risk impact of Vitamin D deficiency on patient volunteers with darkly pigmented skin.

In this large public health study, the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), which was conducted between 1988 and 1994, blood levels of Vitamin D were measured in study volunteers. Patients with a Vitamin D level of less than 20 ng/dL were considered to be deficient in Vitamin D.

As previous public health studies have also shown, the results of this study indicated that African-Americans are twice as likely to die of colorectal cancer when compared to Caucasians. When blood levels of Vitamin D were considered, specifically, the increased risk of dying from colorectal cancerobserved in African-American patients decreased by 40 percent among those African-Americans who had normal levels of Vitamin D in their blood. (These results, therefore, suggest that at least 40 percent of the increased risk of dying from colorectal cancer in African-American persons is likely to be caused by Vitamin D deficiency.) When patients of all races were considered in terms of Vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor for death due to colorectal cancer, patient volunteers with a blood level of Vitamin D less than 20 ng/dL were more than twice as likely (i.e., a 211 percent increase in risk)to die of colorectal cancerduring the course of this prospective research study, when compared with patients who had normal Vitamin D levels.

In summary, this large prospectively conducted public health study found, as have previous studies, a significant association between Vitamin D deficiency and the risk of dying from colorectal cancer. (Previous Vitamin D studies have also identified a 25 to 40 percent reduction in the incidence of colorectal cancer, and death due to colorectal cancer, in study volunteers with blood Vitamin D levels in the 30 to 40 ng/dL range.) While not all clinical research studies have shown this level of colorectal cancer risk reduction associated with normal blood levels of Vitamin D, this particular study joins a growing list of clinical studies that appear to show a significant reduction in colorectal cancer risk associated with adequate levels of Vitamin D in the blood.

As excessive Vitamin D intake can cause significant health problems (especially in patients with kidney disease and parathyroid gland disease), you should check with your doctor prior to considering the use of Vitamin D supplements.

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