Colon cancer diagnosis is usually given by the oncologist after a screening procedure. Screenings can be used to diagnose colon cancer right after forming and sometimes to discover the potential of a cancer developing even before it was actually formed.
<-336x280 Large Rectangle - center->
However, if some threats are found, through a screening a doctor can not say for sure if it is actually colon cancer and which is the exact stage of the disease. He must first take a biopsy sample and then make the tests that can establish if there is cancer or not.

So, after colon cancer diagnosis in the first phase, other tests are made white the purpose to establish the exact stage of the cancer, if it has passed the colon wall and where it has spread in the body. This whole process is made with the only purpose to diagnose the stage of the cancer, because depending on its evolution treatment is administrated. Colon cancer treatment can be very different in different stages and this is way it is very important to know where you are standing.

Here are the tests that can be used in the staging process. One of the most common is a CT scan. This is also called a computerized axial tomography for colon cancer staging because in such an intervention pictures all over the body are taken and they are made by a computer linked to an x-ray machine. This way a doctor can establish exactly the stage of the cancer and treatment can start. The computerized axial tomography for colon cancer diagnosis can be one of the best ways to know exactly which that stage is.


However, there are also other possible interventions for colon cancer staging that can be performed, and that actually are recommended by many doctors. One of them is the lymph node biopsy in which a part of the lymph node is removed, after which medical test are made under a microscope. Surgery can also be made with the purpose to see how far the cancer has spread in the body. However, not all doctors recommend it.


So, as already said it is very important to know the exact stage of the cancer to establish the most appropriate treatment for it. In the first stages surgery can be made and the cancer can be easily removed, but in the most advanced stages, the cancer is very difficult to cure, sometimes almost impossible.

In such situations patients are submitted to chemotherapy and also to radiation therapy. The way those treatments are going to work will vary form one patient to another, so no doctor can tell you for sure if you are going to be cure of colon cancer or not.

An important thing that should not be ignored about colon cancer is that it does not affect only the patient who developed the disease. Colon cancer can have huge effects also on the family of the individual, his or her children, wife or husband and parents.
<-336x280 Large Rectangle - center->
So, both the patient and his family will need support to be able to pass this awful period and manage to win the fight against the cancer. Colon cancer foundations were made with such a purpose. There are such organizations that set different campaigns in order to raise the degree of colon cancer awareness and to inform about this disease.


The Susan Cohan Kasdas Colon Cancer Foundation is one of them. Here you will be able to read many things about colon cancer and so get exactly informed about any detail of the disease evolving and mostly about colon cancer diagnosis. Getting screened every year is an advice you will receive from most doctors and on this foundation web page you will get all the explications you can need to understand what screening tests mean and how they are performed. Being well informed is probably the most important thing to start with in colon cancer prevention and early diagnosis.


STOP is another colon cancer foundation that tries to make a great contribution at colon cancer awareness and to have campaigns that are visible all over the country. Some people do not realize how important is to prevent colon cancer, because they do not know that this is one of the most preventable types of cancers.

One of the simplest ways to reduce your risks of developing colon cancer is to have a balanced diet, based on foods rich in vitamins such as vegetables and fruits. It is also recommended to exercise at least 30 minutes every day and so you will decrease your potential in getting many diseases, not only colon cancer. Prevent Colon Cancer Foundation is a very good place to start your search on this matter. You can easily access their web site at preventcancer.org.


As already said, besides prevention, colon cancer early diagnosis is very important because it means making the difference between a treatable disease and a cancer that in many cases brings death. So, in the first stages colon cancer can easily be removed through surgeries, but in the last stages the cancer spreads and chemotherapy is administrated.

In such situations the disease can be very difficult to treat and sometimes impossible. This is why it is very important to detect the cancer before it reaches the last stage. Don’t forget that colon cancer is one of the main causes of death among patients all over the world, the second one in cancer related cases.

Screening means detecting the disease before its clinical signs appear, and this is particularly important because early diagnosis offers the opportunity to a favorable prognosis. Once symptoms appear, it is likely that the tumor has already spread to neighboring organs or has created distant metastases.
<-336x280 Large Rectangle - center->
Many medical studies have been performed to identify the factors that may be considered risk factors for colorectal cancers. This information helps doctors choose people who should take screening tests. Screening is useful for those who do not have clinical signs of colon cancer. Taking the colon cancer screening does not mean that a positive diagnoses will be necessarily made. However, screening tests should be repeated at a certain period of time. If the screening test result is abnormal, some investigations are needed to confirm the diagnosis of colon cancer tumors.

The tests used in colon cancer screening can be extremely useful for the early diagnosis of the tumor, which also implies a favorable prognosis and a low rate of recurrence. Anyway, none of the medical studies have shown that screening tests can reduce the risk of death from cancer. Specialists are trying to find out through various medical studies the exact usefulness of cancer screening tests, as well as the benefits and the risks that the screening implies. Medical studies have proven also that the early detection really lowers the death rate from cancer.

Screening for colon cancer can have many forms. The colonoscopy is one of the colon cancer tests that provide the possibility of examining the colon using a flexible tube. Because there is a camera and a light tied on the end of the tube, the doctor can see inside the patients body through the imagines that are projected on a computer tied to the camera. Through this intervention, a biopsy sample can also be taken. The sigmoidoscopy is another test used for colon cancer detection. The doctor looks inside the patients’ body using a tube with a lens and a light source on the end. Though the tube, the doctor can see if tumors, abnormal growths or cancers have been developed by the patient. Another screening test is the barium enema, a special type of X-ray that uses barium sulfate and air to outline the lining of the rectum and colon, which provides the possibility to see if abnormal growths have been developed inside the individual body.

Regardless of the type of test used, colon cancer screening is in some cases crucial for the disease detection and cure. If you know that some of the risk factors that cause the cancer development were present, and if you are over 50 years old, you have to take the screening test on the periods recommended by your doctor.

Breast cancer usually begins with the formation of a small well-defined tumor. Some tumors are benign, meaning that they do not invade other tissues, others are malignant, or cancerous. Malignant tumors have the potential to be metastases, which means to spread to other parts of the body. Once such a tumor reaches a certain size, is more likely that the radiate cells spread to other parts of the body through the bloodstream and lymphatic system. The different types of breast cancer can grow and spread at different rates. Some of them have years to spread beyond the breast, while others spread rapidly.
<-336x280 Large Rectangle - center->
Breast cancer affects mostly women, but men can also develop the disease. A woman whose mother, sister, or daughter had breast cancer have a two to three times higher risk to get the disease, especially if in the family are affected by this disease at least two first-degree relatives.

Some studies have shown that breast cancer can increase colon cancer risk. There is also a genetic disorder, called Peutz-Jeghers syndrome which is known to increase a person's risk of both breast cancer and colon cancer. BRCA genes, the breast cancer genes, are the ones that increase a woman chances of breast cancer and colon cancer development. Although, both colon cancer and breast cancer can affect both men and women, a woman chances of getting breast cancer are higher and so her chances in developing both diseases too.

Both colon and breast cancer have some common risk factors. Drinking alcohol and the family heritage are only two of them. The usual every day diet can be another risk factor in getting both diseases.



However, the fact that a woman had breast cancer is considered a risk factor for colorectal cancer. But not all researches agree with this. A study about the risk of colon cancer after breast-cancer diagnosis in women with first incident breast cancer between the years 1974 and 1995 showed that women with previous breast cancer were 5% less likely to develop colon cancer and 13% less likely to develop rectal cancer than other women in general. The study also showed that the risk drop observed for colon cancer were most pronounced for women with breast cancer diagnosed after the age of 65 years old, in white women and in women with local stage breast cancer.  The study conclusion in that breast cancer does not increase automatically colon cancer risk.

Today, there are many women with both breast and colon cancer. Although the causes are not known, or researchers do not agree about the risk factors that lead to this fact and not all of them believe that there is a link between the two diseases development, if you had a colon or breast cancer case in you family, you should be careful at any sign that can lead you to the two diseases.

Cancer is a well known disease that affects many people every year. In 2004 in Europe there were registered 2.886.800 cases of different types of cancer and more than half summing 1.711.000 cancer deaths. The most common type of cancer in Europe was lung cancer summing approximately 13.3% of all the cases, followed by colon cancer which summed 13.2% of all cancer related diagnoses.

<-336x280 Large Rectangle - center->

Lung cancer, followed by colon cancer were also the most common causes of death. Every year in Europe almost 2.9 million new cancer cases occur. Considering that approximately 1.7 million people dies every years because of a cancer rated disease, cancer is an important health problem in Europe, as it is also in the United States.

Colon cancer is a major cause of mortality all over the world. Colon cancer is more common in people over the first youth and is more rarely, in those under 40. This type of cancer affects 1 in 20 people in developed countries and is the second cause of cancer death in both sexes, in Europe. For this reason, colon cancer in Europe is a public health problem. Most European countries, the United States and even Japan have to deal with more colon cancer cases every year.

In Europe, as in the United States, the colon cancer statistics regarding survival rates are presented depending on the stage in which the disease is discovered. So in stage one the survival rate will be higher than in the last stage, stage four. However, it is estimated that the five-year survival rates are: 40 percent in rectosigmoid junction, 42 percent in rectum, 42 percent in transverse colon, 44 percent in right colon, 47 percent in descending colon, 48 percent in left colon and 49 percent in ascending colon.

In Europe, every year, more than 400,000 people are newly diagnosed with colon cancer and for 212,000 Europeans the disease is fatal. Although colon cancer is the type of cancer that provides excellent opportunities of discovery in its early stages, it remains the second cause of death among cancer patients. For example, almost a hundred new colon cancer cases are diagnosed each day in the UK. A study made in 2006 showed that 37,514 new cases of large bowel cancer were registered in England.

However, a study made and published by British researchers showed, as several other studies already suggested, that there is a link between vitamin D and colon cancer. Anyway its effects haven’t got a great impact on colon cancer patients in Europe. A study made between 1992 and 1998 in Europe, showed also the existence of a connection between diet and lifestyle and colon cancer development. The subjects, that could develop the disease because of their medical history, were tracked for several years. The study results showed that no one got ill.

In medicine constant research is needed. There are many transformations that occur every day in the area of research. New diseases are discovered and new medicines and drugs are needed. Although, colon cancer is not a new disease, still there is no certain cure for it. In most cases surgery is the solution, but when the cancer has spread and the stage in which it is diagnosed is an advanced one, surgery may not be possible. Then chemotherapy is a solution.

<-336x280 Large Rectangle - center->

In colon cancer researches are always done, because the disease affects a big number of individuals every year. Experts are looking for ways to prevent the disease, to discover it and to treat it when it is already developed. For example, doctors and researchers have found out that there are some gene changes that can affect the efficiency of a particular treatment.

Colon cancers in which the genes process changes interfere are not likely to be cured or helped by certain drugs such as cetuximab or panitumumab. Today, the discoveries made in the medical area can prevent this particular situation. Tests can be made regarding the gene changes and so unnecessary treatment not being applied.

Other studies have found that people who take multi-vitamins containing folic acid, vitamin D supplements, or calcium may have a lower colon cancer risk than people who do not. These supplements can be taken as a certain treatment or only as an additional one. However, researches have shown that people who have a healthy diet can reduce the risks of developing colon cancer. Also, smoking influence in getting the disease is considered a risk factor if it has been an individual habit for many years.

Because the primary treatment in colon cancer cases is surgery, researchers are continuing to improve their techniques and methods for operating. They now have a better knowledge and understanding of what makes colon cancer surgery more likely to success. In surgery, there have to be removed all the lymph nodes that were affected by the disease.

A new surgery type is the laparoscopic intervention. This kind of surgery is done through several small incisions in the abdomen instead of one large one. Practices have show that this technique is more suitable for some colon cancers cases. This approach, most of the times, allows patients to recover faster, without any pain, or at least with less pain than an operation.

The latest colon cancer researches have developed several vaccines with the willingness to treat colon cancer or to prevent it from reoccurring after it has been removed through a particular type of treatment. Unlike vaccines that usually prevent infectious diseases, these vaccines are meant to boost the patient's immune reaction to be able to fight colon cancer in an efficient way.

Colon cancer is a disease that affects the colon and the rectal area. Like every other type of cancer, colon cancer is hard and difficult to treat. Although, discovered in its early stage, colon cancer is one of the most treatable types of cancer related diseases.

<-336x280 Large Rectangle - center->

First colon cancer cases were known before the nineteenth century. However, the disease was not called cancer and many things about its evolution were not actually known. Although colon cancer history can be traced back in the antiquity, colon cancer cases were discovered from the ancient times to the medieval one. The disease, as we know it today began its evolution in the 17th to 20th centuries and now entered into the 21st century will a great number of diseases every year.

So, we can not say the there is someone who discovered colon cancer. This disease has a big history that can be placed in ancient times. However, although sings, symptoms and prevention forms were not known and today researches are at a level that allow us discover the disease ever before it becomes a problem, we can not name someone who made a huge difference in the history of colon cancer.

The questions about who discovered colon cancer and when was colon cancer discovered are hard to be given a simple answer because of the complexity of the disease and the lack of knowing many things about the so called “new and strange illness” in the eighteenth century.

However, today there are many researchers who have studied the evolution of colon cancer on the individuals. The things discovered have an enormous importance in the fight to create and discover a medicine that can cure cancer, or if not actually curing the disease, at least stopping its growth, and so be able to prevent death from occurring.

Generally, the disease named “cancer” is a well known one since the Ancient Greek. Actually, the origin of the word “cancer” is attributed to Hippocrates, who used the terminology to describe ulcer tumors. The word was then translated to roman and this is how we use the term cancer to name the uncontrolled growth of the cells. Although since then till now many break points in the evolution of the disease were made, many of the cancer related elements were discovered in the nineteenth century.

In the nineteenth century the method of microscopy pathology search was correlated to the observation of the autopsy findings and so a better understanding of the disease was made. Now the improvement of surgery intervention was a great element in the disease diagnosis that could be made precisely. This was also o way of knowing if the surgery was a successful one and had removed the cancer on if it has not.

Cancer is today more than just a term definition or simple qualification for a disease, it is used for troubles in which a lot of unbalanced activities in the inner layers of the tissue that is filled up by cells who uncontrollable divide and affect the neighborly healthy organs, invading even the vital ones with a fast spread rate that unfortunately has become more of a fascination for the medical staff specialized doctors in this kind of affections.
<-336x280 Large Rectangle - center->
Cancer diseased hormonal imbalances can create malignant tumor formations in the tissue segments in the body that can extend to the lymph node area and blood circulation, making the whole body react in a negative and precarious fashion. The main negative aspect is that it very often leads to death.

Cancer, taken alone, is not just one affliction, it stands for a various other infections. The medical world knows about one hundred forms of cancerous affections that appear in almost every part of the body. Most of these diseases are qualified after the organic tissue that it affects or it can be named after the cell layer types that surround the affected area.

For example if a cancerous cell layer basically takes place in the rectal area it is qualified as colon cancer affection. The definition still remains even in the cases where the already diseased cells have affected other vital organ. The name remains after the first organ they infected. The disease that begins to develop in the cell base of the skin form it is defined as the basal carcinoma.

When trying to classify the affection lead on by cancerous diseases, we can structure them in a different number of medical qualifications. The principle one has the definitions for: Sarcoma or the affection lead on by cancer in the bone stricter and cartilage tissue formation, it can also link to fatness or the muscular body mass. This often begins in the blood flow and the circulatory system from where the sarcoma spread all around the body. This is why there is a certain speed in which the disease can evolve and develop, thus making it more impact-full in a negative way.

The Carcinoma! This kind of cancerous formation starts with the skin tissue layers and usually it creates a protective skin stratus from where it can be properly identified by a specialized dermatologist. Leukemia is another infamous cancer type that begins in the blood circulatory system and from the bone marrow segments that causes some severe abnormalities.

This cancerous affection spreads very fast through the regular blood flow and it is known as a killer, especially in the young pre pubertal adolescents that are born with a variation or another of this terrible affection. It is always recommended to inform yourself and your family about all of these aspects in order to keep a sharp eye for any problematic issues.

For example, eating red meat with regularity can encourage a cell imbalance that can create a tumor in the specified area. This is because the red meat is not so good when it comes to digest and absorb the proper nutritional values. The red meat also can remain half digested, than transform into a residual waste that can be hard to process by the intestinal organs and if this is combined with the apparition of polyps, than the result is called colorectal cancer.
<-336x280 Large Rectangle - center->
Medical specialized in this field have claimed that smoking can also affect us in this way, because of the existing toxins and poisons besides nicotine, that can create cell imbalances and peculiar activity. Also a sedentary life style, an office desk job, a car, elevator usage, no more physical effort, can trigger the apparition of it. Obesity is also a factor, but obesity has a lot of downsides all together. Colorectal cancer is one of the more common ones.

Beer drinkers have also received a bad news regarding their habit. The beer is not very good for the body even though it is made from mostly natural components. The fermentation processes that the beer sufferers in order to give its taste, if consumed with a constant regularity, it can affect many vital organs, especially the stomach and liver.

Diet alone seems to be an important factor when we are talking about colon or rectal diseases. The whole digestive system that once finished passes on the responsibility of nutrients absorption to the excretion one that once in a while needs a push, especially if you have reached a certain age.

The symptomatic phases of the colon or rectal cancerous affection revolve around the whole excretion process. So the most common of these symptoms can be reflected through the painful abdominal discomforts that a sufferer feels after small meals. This happens because of the lack of proper function of the absorption processes in the intestinal region.

This can be also a problem because colon cancer affections do not have many particular symptomatic states, so in most of the cases they can be diagnosed as something else. Fluids in the abdominal area are also something that you have to look for when trying to diagnose the colon cancer.

Some of the more obvious symptomatic states can be the melena, or the stool that has a small quantity of blood in it. This happens because of the existing lesions in the lower intestinal area and that every time the fecal matter is processed and pushed from the intestinal region through the muscular walls existing in the tube, the blood is mixed up with the stool and give is a darker color.

This is the important symptomatic state that makes the diagnose more easily. Melena is usually a clear indication of colon or rectal affections. The medical community will deliver more test in this direction if we think about the numerous cases of colon cancers that are year by year detected.

What is the overview when speaking about the colon or rectal forms of cancer? The colon and rectum are both an essential part of the gastro intestinal tract and play an important role when it comes to our digestive process and all the alimentary circuit from food, to protein absorption and then the residue transformations and excretion.

<-336x280 Large Rectangle - center->

As playing one of the essential roles in the whole body they are comprised in the larger segment of the intestinal tube or large bowel area from the abdomen just right before taking all aside and be leaded through the exit that is the anus. Cancer that develops and comes from the colon or rectal areas can be called colorectal affections, rectal cancer or as it is already known, the colon cancer.

The colon is the main responsible when it comes to water absorption process that happens in the intestinal region. It is almost one meter long and is contoured by the cecum , or as the medical community refers to the node that links the small intestinal tube located  at the abdominal valve defined as ileoceal.

The upper part of the colon, if trying to be located, watch around for the vertical segment in the lower side of the intestinal tube. The sideways colon that can also be in the region that covers the abdominal area, the lower region of the colon that extends to the final part of the excretion apparatus, the rectum and anus region.

The rectal region can be located in the final sector of the large intestinal tube. It is 15 to 18 centimeters long and it has the ‘escape route’ to the anus location, which is the eliminatory and final stage of the excretion process that happens to the outside of the body. Waste or residual material or the fecal matter is deposited in the rectal region until it is pushed out from there through the anal part.

The vast majority of the colon cancer sufferers, and this in percentages can reach a number of almost ninety five percent, are the adenocarcinomas  type colon cancer , that grow when a change or in medical terms, a mutation appears I the cellular layers and structures that surround the rectal apparatus and revolving tissue.

Sometimes the tissue produces a number of cell layers that have a useful particularity especially when it comes to the replacement of the elder or dying ones. So all it is produced to prevent and when the time comes, to switch places and protect and continue the cellular normal activity.

Sometimes imbalances in the way a cell is produced and the fact the elder one has not yet died or become useless can trigger a negative effect. More and more cells will be now produced with in a region where they are not even needed, and that have no particularity or usefulness. But the tissue keeps on the work and thinks, from some kind of imbalances that the scientists are still arguing about, the main cause of cancer, where the cells keep on being produced while there are others that are doing their job.