Caring for your Colon

Colon cancer is easily avoidable with the correct preventive measures

No one thought anything was wrong when Anne’s* father-in-law started complaining about eling bloated in the stomach three years ago. The 68-year-old would consult his general practitioner (GP) every time he felt this way.

“He’s also a picky eater who wouldn’t include vegetables and fruits in his normal diet, unless he has constipation,” says Anne.

Recently, the doctor diagnosed him of colorectal cancer.

It could happen to you

If the vegetable- and fruit-less diet of Anne’s father-in-law sounds disturbingly like yours, you might want to change that–and quickly too.

Unknown to many, colorectal cancer is the most common cancer in Singapore today with 600 to 800 new cases diagnosed annually.

Although colorectal cancer may occur at any age, about 90% of cases occur over the age of 40 years, writes Dr Eu Kong Weng, in the pamphlet–“Colorectal Cancer: The Cancer That Is Preventable and How to Stop It”.

It is also the overall most common cause of cancer deaths in Singapore, adds Dr Eu who is the head and senior consultant surgeon, Department of Colorectal Surgery at Singapore General Hospital (SGH).

Who’s at risk

People who are 50 years or older are at an average risk of developing colorectal cancer and this risk increases if there is a personal or family history of:

• Benign colonic polyps (grape-like growths on the inner lining of the colon)
• Colorectal cancer
• Ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease
• Ovarian, uterine, breast, or urological cancer

Surgery is the most effective treatment and the operation is usually performed through an abdominal incision, says Dr Eu.

This is where the section of bowel containing the cancer, along with the associated blood vessels and lymph nodes, are removed. In most cases, the bowel is reconnected so that normal bowel function is restored.

If the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes or elsewhere, additional treatment such as chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy may be needed.

Preventive measures

Although Anne’s father-in-law is now recovering well from his surgery, the frustrating thing is that he’s still deviating from the healthy diet that could have prevented him–
and many like him–from contracting the disease in the
first place.

According to Dr Eu, here are measures to minimise the risk of colon cancer:

• Consume adequate dietary fibre
• Limit your consumption of fat
• Get plenty of exercise
• Do not use tobacco
• Limit alcohol intake
• Other preventive measures (e.g. taking 400mcg of folic acid, 400IU of vitamin E daily)

With measures as simple as these, it’s no wonder doctors feel colorectal cancer is a disease that is easily preventable.

But if you’ll like to put your mind at ease or even suspect you have symptoms of colon cancer, you might like to go for a screening test. More than one-third of colorectal cancer deaths could be avoided if people over 50 had regular screening tests like the faecal occult blood test (FOBT) or colonoscopy.

Don’t hesitate. When colorectal cancer is detected in the earliest stage, the survival rate is greater than 90%