A woman in her 30s with stage 4 colorectal cancer had this warning sign a year ago
Mar 20, 2025
|
Tess, a 33-year-old mother of two living in Sydney, Australia, was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, and the cancer cells had already spread to the liver.
Recently recovering from cancer surgery, she told her colorectal cancer symptoms through social media TikTok and advised her not to miss even minor signals.
She visited the hospital after suffering from diarrhea and was told by medical staff that it could be lactose intolerance due to dairy products.
At the same time, the doctor estimated that it could be a childbirth complication because it occurred 18 months after giving birth.
However, after that, other symptoms such as constipation, bloody excrement, and extreme fatigue began to appear.
"Even though I slept 8 to 10 hours a day, I was tired."She went to bed early every night because she was weak and tired all day," she said.
I also got an iron injection to relieve my fatigue, which didn't help me at all.
She asked the medical staff for a thorough examination. This was because his symptoms were similar to those of other colon cancer patients seen online.
In the end, 10 months after the initial symptoms appeared, the medical staff asked for a colonoscopy.
However, the colon tumor was so large that the doctor stopped the examination and conducted a biopsy, which was stage 4 colon cancer. It had spread to the liver.
She emphasized that early symptoms should not be overlooked, saying "If the test had not been strongly requested, the colonoscopy would not have been possible."
"Fortunately, the tumor was removed after a long operation, but I am worried that it will recur." he said.
Meanwhile, according to the World Health Organization, colon cancer is the third most common cancer in the world and the second leading cause of death from cancer.
Colorectal cancer was also counted as the second most diagnosed cancer in Korea in 2021 in Korea 'National Cancer Information Center's incidence status by carcinoma'.
Early colon cancer is mostly asymptomatic. When the size of the tumor increases, symptoms such as bloody excrement, abdominal pain, digestive disorders, constipation, abdominal distention, frequent stool, thinning of the stool, anemia due to continued bleeding, and weight loss begin to appear. If colon cancer progresses, it can lead to continuous bleeding, abdominal distention and vomiting due to intestinal obstruction, peritonitis due to intestinal rupture, urination disorders, and cardiovascular effects.
The cause of colorectal cancer is not yet clear, but it is estimated that about 70 to 90% are caused by environmental factors and 10 to 30% by genetic factors.
Several environmental factors work in combination. Excessive consumption of red meat or processed meat, consumption of carbs of grilled meat, and low carbohydrate consumption are known to cause colon cancer. In addition, excessive drinking, smoking, lack of sleep, and extreme stress are cited as causes, and there are also reports of excessive energy drink consumption causing colon cancer.
There are various diagnostic methods and tests for colorectal cancer, but the most important is colonoscopy. There are also fecal occult blood tests and rectal resin tests.
If it is small stage 0 colon cancer or very early colon cancer with a depth of invasion of the inner wall of the large intestine less than 1 mm, it can be resected through colonoscopy, but the principle of colon cancer treatment since then is surgery. The complete treatment is to remove cancer and tissue, including the lymph nodes around the cancer. With the recent development of various surgical methods such as laparoscopy and robots, patients are recovering quickly, and surgeries that were not possible in the past are often possible.
For the purpose of preventing recurrence after surgery or preoperative progression, chemotherapy is also considered. Radiotherapy can be performed for the purpose of reducing tumor size before rectal cancer surgery, treating peripheral metastases, and preventing recurrence after surgery.
|
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
