Cancer

Cancer is one of the diseases that can affect first any part of your body and then it can spread to the whole body if not treated right or on due time. So cancer can affect the rectum, too. The rectum is a small area that connects the larger intestine with the anus and is often confused with the latter. Considering the location of the organ, people rarely talk about it, even if the discussion involves rectal cancer, which is a disease, so nothing shameful here. Any way, rectal cancer can manifest as smaller or bigger polyps or tumors that appear in the rectum.

The rectal cancer treatment can vary and it is usually decided depending on the stage of the cancer when the cancer is diagnosed and also on the severity of the case and the response of the individual. Normally the treatment of choice is surgery. The surgeon removes the cancer formations and also the lymph nodes in the area during surgery and sometimes, if they are forced to remove a big part of the rectum or all of it and sometimes the anus, too, they will make an incision in the abdomen that will allow them to attach a bag for disposing of the feces. This type of cancer is considered to be related with the colon cancer and has exactly the same signs and symptoms and also treatment options.



Another type of rectal cancer treatment is chemotherapy. This therapy relies on the healing effects of drugs that affect the cancer cells and kill them, no matter where they are located. That is why this treatment is considered systemic, that is it acts upon the whole body, not a certain organ. Usually this treatment is chosen if the cancer has started spreading to the nearby lymph nodes or even to the more distant organs.



Radiation therapy is also used when treating rectal cancer and it can be divided into two big kinds, according to the way in which the treatment is given. There is the external beam radiation therapy and the internal radiation therapy , also known as brachytherapy. The first one uses radiation beams from the outside of the body, targeting the affected organ in the attempt of distroying the cancer tissue. The latter consists of inserting some radioactive seeds in the affected organ. Of course all these treatments have their side-effects, that is why every patient should search for detailed information about all the options of treatment they have and talk to their doctor about them. They must be perfectly aware of all the consequences of their decisions and decide only when they have enough information.

Apart from these main treatment option for cancer, there are also some other ones that are considered more experimental, like the targeted therapies. When the cancer is in the metastatic stage, that is it is spread to other organs in the body, too, like the liver or lungs, the surgical removal of the tumours is not alwys possible, so the doctors will use other techniques and methods like freezing the tumour. But these are only supposed to give some more time to the patient and not to cure.