Blood in the stool can indicate colon cancer. A profound change is currently taking place in the therapy strategies in such cases.
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Ricarda Peine is a senior physician in the clinic for general, visceral and thoracic surgery at the clinic.
(Photo: Helmut Hahn)
DARMSTADT – Even if everyday life is more contemplative in these times and there would actually be more time to take care of your physical well-being more intensively than usual, signs of diseases are overlooked under the dominant Corona issue, which would otherwise cause you to visit your family doctor. But given the situation, who cares about blood in stool, blood on toilet paper, changes from constipation and diarrhea or even pencil-thin stools?
You should definitely be interested if you notice such symptoms, because they can hide malignant diseases of the rectum or colon. Despite Corona, these urgently need to be diagnosed in order to be treated well and promptly. The way to clarify such complaints is quite simple: a visit to the family doctor, colonoscopy, findings. This is the only way to clarify whether there is a disease that requires treatment or whether the symptoms turn out to be harmless. But what should be done if the suspicion is confirmed and a malignant disease of the colon or even the rectum is found? Despite Corona, “putting it on the long bench” is completely wrong, because time plays an important role in the fight against cancer. That is why you should not hesitate and introduce yourself to a competent and experienced colon cancer center, where specialists from all disciplines such as oncologists (cancer specialists), radiation therapists, internists and surgeons advise on which of the most modern forms of therapy they can suggest. This “tumor conference” institution plays an extremely important role in bringing innovations to concrete use.
In the case of rectal cancer in particular, there is currently a profound change in therapy strategies towards intensified radiation chemotherapy, so that under certain circumstances an operation and the associated, sometimes serious consequences can possibly be avoided entirely. Since these are quite new scientific findings that make things considerably easier for patients, it is very important to make this state-of-the-art knowledge available to them, for example in the context of study participation, in particular at “colon cancer centers” with a good network. Going to the treatment of such centers is one of the greatest opportunities in the fight against cancer.
It is therefore in the patient’s own interest to set out and take advantage of the range of blood detection in stool (haemoccult test) from the age of 50 or preventive colonoscopy and to investigate particularly irregularities in bowel movements. And should the diagnosis of rectal cancer or colon cancer actually be made, one should not hesitate to look for a team of diagnosticians and therapists who work according to the latest standards and therapy methods.
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