Colorectal cancer is a malignant tumor that grows in the in the large intestine. If colon and rectal cancer all happened at the same time, it’s this. It’s the third leading cause of cancer in the United States and like all cancers, it’s idiopathic in nature. This means, it doesn’t have a sure cause on why it happened. But, thanks to studies, risk factors (predisposing and precipitating factors) were identified.
It’s not always clear why colorectal cancer occurs, just like any other cancers. But one thing is certain, there are ways to detect a cancer and that is through a screening process. Singapore is one of the few leading countries that has the best facilities for screening and treatment of various types of cancers. It’s one of the best countries that people can go to for treatment in general.
The risk factors of colorectal cancer: The risk factors are things that make people at risk to any disease in general and in this case colorectal cancer. Risk factors is not just a good to know, but a need to know information. Risk factors wasn’t just all made up by a few people, this is a collective effort and backed by studies. They don’t put these in the books if they don’t have a good reference for it.
- (predisposing factors):
- Old age
- History of colorectal polyp or cancer
- History of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
- Race and ethnicity
- Heredity
- Type 2 diabetes
- (precipitating):
- Obesity
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Diet that includes ingesting products that are cancerous or found to have components that can cause cancer
- Smoking
- Drinking too much alcohol
Screening for Colorectal cancer: Screening in general are tests or a process of looking for colorectal cancer. The test can detect cancers that are even asymptomatic and even colorectal polyps. In general, There hasn’t been any specific time or age on when you need to get screened for cancer. But the recommended age to get screened is at the age of 50, where you become more at risk in getting one. Below are the colorectal cancer screening tests:
- Single-specimen guaiac FOBT done in a doctor’s office
- High-sensitivity fecal occult blood tests (FOBT)
- Double-contrast barium enema
- Standard (or optical) colonoscopy
- Stool DNA test (FIT-DNA)
- Virtual colonoscopy
- Sigmoidoscopy
There maybe other tests not mentioned here, but none the less, these are the popular one’s that never goes out of any colorectal cancer screening.
Treatment for colorectal cancer: There are 3 main cancer treatments that never goes out of any text book and this is widely and strictly accompanied by a healthy lifestyle. Cancer treatment can either be or a mix of the things mentioned below:
- Chemotherapy
- Surgery
- Radiation therapy
Using multiple treatments or just utilizing just one of the mentioned above will solely depend on the result of the screening tests. It will depend on the gravity of the cancer and these are popularly classified as stages: 0,1,2,3 and 4.
If you suspect you have one and you have a few or all of the precipitating and predisposing factors, there are a lot of good institutions in Singapore that can provide you a good screening. Screening for colorectal cancer in Singapore is actually the norm in other countries, they go to Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada or The United States to get screened and treated. Not just because these countries have the best facilities around but also because they have the best controlled environment for cancer patients unlike anywhere else in the world. If you want to know more, you can visit www.panasiasurg.com for more info.
