Bowel or colorectal cancer is one of the common cancers affecting many people across Australia. According to reports, over 15000 people are diagnosed with colorectal cancer in a year. This type of cancer develops in mucosa (inner lining of bowel).  Sometimes, it is also called as rectal cancer or colon cancer, the name varies depending on the part it affects.

Abnormal cells (polyps) grow faster and become cancerous over time. If it is untreated, these cells even grow into surrounding walls and spread to other parts (metastases) like brain, liver, lymph nodes and lungs. If cancer spreads outside the bowel, it can be treatable but not curable, in many cases.

From Radiation Oncology Targeting Cancer, you can get the service of highly experienced medical professional for treating bowel cancer, at affordable price.

Causes for getting bowel cancer

Reasons for getting bowel cancer are unknown. However, the cancer developing risk increases mostly with age. Also, few lifestyle factors like smoking cigarette, drinking alcohol, lack of regular exercise and intake of low fiber and high fat like ham, salami, etc can increase the chances of cancer.

People with uterine (endometrial) or ovarian cancer, anal fissure and other health conditions are more prone to bowel cancer.Genetic conditions as well as bowel cancer history in family can lead to bowel cancer. Few polyps can cause bowel cancer, removing them on time can reduce the risk dramatically.

Bowel cancer symptoms

People will not experience any symptoms in the early stage of bowel cancer. So, screening is very important to diagnose early. Those with bowel cancer often experience few symptoms such as constipation, smaller stools, blood in stools, anemia, pain, weight loss, and diarrhea.

You can even detect the cancer when it is limited and small. Not visible, little blood on fecal is the early symptom detected in screening. Usually, the symptoms vary depending on the size and location of tumor.

Severe bowel cancer symptoms are:

• Pelvic or abdominal pain
• Headaches
• Anal or rectal pain
• Blockage in bowel
• Swelling

Treatment Methods for bowel cancer

Bowel cancer will be treated with different treatment methods depending on stage of cancer and health condition of a person. In case, cancer is detected at early stage, then surgery is the viable option, followed by other treatments such as radiation therapy or chemotherapy.

Commonly, radiation therapy will be used to treat rectal cancer (lower bowel cancer). Radiation therapy and chemotherapy both are used for rectal cancer before surgery in order to increase the chances of removing cancer completely.

Few times, radiation therapy will be performed even after surgery, in case cancer cells are not removed completely or lymph nodes found cancerous. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy without surgery are the best way to treat few anal cancers to maintain proper anal functioning.

Even though, there are few side-effects with radiation therapy, but you can minimize them by consulting your healthcare professional.

There are many medical specialties that offer radiation therapy, choose the best one and consult today before it becomes worse.