1. Changes in bowel habits: Relevant research statistics show that in the early stages of colon cancer, patients often show intermittent changes in bowel habits.
Patients with right colon cancer mainly have loose stools and increased stool frequency in the early stage. This is related to the fact that the cancer and its secretions stimulate the intestinal mucosa and lead to changes in intestinal mucosal secretion.
As the patient's condition continues to progress, the number of bowel movements will become more and more frequent. There is always a feeling of incomplete bowel movement after each bowel movement, and frequent bowel movements even at night. The stools are often unformed and there are obvious odors in the stools. Mucus is mixed in;
2. Constipation symptoms: The most common area of colon cancer is actually the junction of the rectum and sigmoid colon.
Cancers that appear in this area are generally narrow, hard cancers. This kind of cancer develops quickly and can easily infiltrate around the intestinal wall, causing the patient's intestinal tract to become increasingly narrow.
Therefore, patients will experience symptoms such as reduced stool frequency, constipation, and thinner stool shapes. At the same time, due to poor stool discharge, patients may also be accompanied by abdominal distension, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, etc.;
3. Frequent abdominal pain: No matter which organ is cancerous, the most unavoidable symptom after entering the advanced stage is pain, and colon cancer is no exception.
In the early stages of cancer, patients generally feel no pain, or they may only experience dull pain, dull pain or stretching pain in the intestines. This pain is mostly related to tumors or secretions irritating the intestinal mucosa.
As the cancer continues to progress, the tumor begins to invade locally and pull into surrounding tissues, or it may be combined with intestinal obstruction or perforation, and the patient will experience continued deepening, severe and unbearable abdominal pain;
4. Symptoms of bloody stools: Colon cancer and rectal cancer have different bloody stools. In the early stages of rectal cancer, the symptoms of patients with bloody stools are very similar to those of hemorrhoids.
However, in the early stages of colon cancer, hematochezia is often manifested as positive fecal occult blood. When bloody stools are visible to the naked eye, they are shapeless and the stool is mixed with mucus and blood, and the blood appears deep red or dark red. Once intestinal cancer is combined with infection, patients may also discharge pus and blood in their stools.