The 3rd most common cancer in Korea after thyroid and lung cancer
Causes include family history, diet, inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, drinking, etc.
There are no initial symptoms, so regular check-ups such as colonoscopy are important.
Customized treatment such as endoscopic and laparoscopic surgery is possible depending on the stage of disease.
Colon cancer is the second most common cancer in Korea after thyroid cancer and lung cancer. It occurs slightly more often in men than in women, with a sex ratio of about 1:1.4, and occurs most often in people in their 60s, but has recently shown an increasing trend in younger age groups as well. This increasing trend is thought to be due to the eating habits of modern people, including irregular meal times in busy daily lives, a diet consisting of spicy and salty foods, and even eating fatty snacks and alcohol.
◇Are colon cancer and rectal cancer the same thing?
Depending on where the cancer occurs, cancer that occurs in the colon is called colon cancer, and cancer that occurs in the rectum is called rectal cancer. The general term for these is ‘colon cancer.’
You may have seen pictures of the organ that occupies the largest area of the abdomen in science books or health magazines. The large intestine is a long tube-shaped digestive organ that starts from the bottom of the right abdomen at the end of the small intestine, moves up, crosses the upper abdomen, goes down again along the left abdomen, and connects to the anus through the sigmoid colon and rectum. Although it varies slightly from person to person, it is about 150 cm long and is responsible for digesting and absorbing food that enters the body, forming and storing feces, and defecating.
◇Risk factors for colon cancer
Risk factors that increase the likelihood of developing colon cancer include family history, diet, inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, drinking, stress, and genetics.
If you have a first-degree relative with colon cancer, your risk of developing colon cancer increases by more than 1.5 times. If any of your relatives, such as uncles, aunts, aunts, grandchildren, grandparents, or grandparents’ siblings, have colon cancer, the risk can increase by about 1.3 times, so if you have a family history, you should not neglect regular checkups.
Dietary factors are the environmental factors that have the greatest impact. Consumption of red meat such as pork and beef is a representative risk factor because the iron contained in red meat is converted into iron ions, a carcinogen, during the digestion process. In addition, fatty snacks and spicy, salty, high-calorie foods that accompany excessive drinking can easily cause colon-related diseases such as enteritis and ulcers, and diets lacking dietary fiber and eating habits of overeating and gluttony also increase the risk of developing colon cancer.
◇Symptoms of colon cancer
Colon cancer usually has no symptoms in the early stages. If symptoms appear, it is often already quite advanced. This is the reason why regular check-ups are most important because of the characteristics of colon cancer.
Different symptoms may occur depending on the location and type of tumor, such as chronic bleeding, resulting anemia, and intestinal obstruction. Changes in bowel habits also occur, including constipation or changes in the frequency of bowel movements, diarrhea, bloody stools (dark or bright red) or sticky mucous stools, a heavy feeling as if stool remains after defecation, abdominal distension, and discomfort. Other symptoms include weight and muscle loss, loss of appetite, and indigestion.
Kim Won-yeon, chief of surgery at Changwon Fatima Hospital, is performing laparoscopic surgery for colon cancer.
◇Treatment of colon cancer
Most colon cancers begin as adenomas (polyps that can progress to cancer), which gradually grow in size, turning into cancer and infiltrating the walls of the colon.
The size of a polyp is very important in predicting its risk. Generally, if it is 1cm or more, it is considered to be at a risk level, and if it is large, hard, depressed, or bleeding, it is classified as a bad polyp that is close to cancer. These polyps are a common disease found in 30% of Korean adults and can be discovered and removed through colonoscopy.
From endoscopic treatment for early colon cancer to surgery and chemotherapy for advanced colon cancer, accurate classification of the stage is important for treatment planning and prognosis.
Early colon cancer that invades less than 1 mm of the submucosal layer and is well differentiated can be removed only with a colonoscope through endoscopic mucosal resection or submucosal dissection. Large tumors that are difficult to remove with a colonoscope and are located in the rectum within 12 cm of the anal border can also be removed. It can be removed through single-hole transanal microsurgery through the anus. Because this surgery is performed through the anus, it has the advantage of causing no pain or scarring. Even in the case of advanced colon cancer, complete resection is possible through delicate surgery using high-resolution 3D laparoscopic equipment, and comparable surgical results can be obtained with shorter operating time than robotic surgery, which has been widely performed recently.
In severe cases of colon cancer, it may be accompanied by intestinal obstruction. In the past, open surgery was often performed to temporarily serve as an anus by connecting an ‘artificial anus’, and then restored a few months later. However, this had disadvantages such as infection at the surgical site and inconvenience to the patient. There was this.
Changwon Fatima Hospital performs colon decompression through emergency colonoscopic stent surgery without laparotomy whenever possible, and a complete cure can be achieved with only one laparoscopic surgery within 1-2 weeks.
If the cancer is stage 2 or higher on biopsy after colon cancer surgery, anticancer drug treatment is necessary. Currently, at the hospital, before and after surgery, specialists from various departments, including surgery, hematology-oncology, pathology, gastroenterology, and radiology, discuss treatment plans according to the patient’s overall condition and cancer stage through multidisciplinary treatment, and provide advice on the immune system characteristics of cancer. We provide customized anti-cancer treatment. In addition, we help patients and their guardians participate in all treatment processes, and experts such as oncology nurses and clinical nutritionists provide education, dietary management, and counseling on the overall cancer treatment process for cancer patients.
Written by = Reporter Junhee Lee jhlee@knnews.co.kr
Help = Kim Won-yeon, Chief of Surgery, Changwon Fatima Hospital
2023-10-15 12:42:22
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