cancer treatment questions and diagnosis

1. You are seeing a 55 year old male patient in your office who has a known diagnosis of hemorrhoids and constipation as well as a family history of colorectal cancer. Your patient states that he has seen a steady increase of rectal bleeding and has had a consistent feeling of abdominal fullness recently. What are three questions about his history would you want to note before moving any further to rule out colorectal cancer?

·         A change in bowel habits, such as diarrhea, constipation, or narrowing of the stool that lasts for more than a few days

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·         Feeling that you need to have a bowel movement that is not relieved by doing so.

·         Weakness and fatigue.

2. After discussing the patient’s health history (question 1), what is your next step in determining whether this patient is experiencing colorectal cancer as opposed to irregular bowel patterns?

·         Colorectal cancer can cause bleeding while sometime blood can be seen in the stool or make it look darker, often the stool looks normal. The blood loss can lead to low blood cells in the body and this is tests the presence of low blood cells .Colorectal cancer in its early stages does not shows signs and symptoms because there is a lot of room in the abdomen where a tumor can grow. Symptoms appears when the tumor is obstructed or causes sores in the colon or rectum.

·         Irregular bowel pattern is unclear but it’s a functional disorder meaning it impairs intestinal functions even though the body appears normal in test. The predominant symptoms are cramping and abdominal pain, bloating, gas and trouble with bowel movement which vary between people.