41-year-old Serena is my high school classmate, an IT guy who likes smoking and masturbating. One morning two years ago, he found that his stool was not formed, thinking that he had eaten a bad stomach, but he didn’t care. However, for the next half month, he still suffered from repeated diarrhea, and finally made up his mind to go to the hospital for a colonoscopy. The results of this examination directly plunged him into the abyss of pain. The pathological results showed high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia of the transverse colon and local cancer. In other words, colon cancer was diagnosed and surgery was recommended.
Laparoscopic surgery was performed in a provincial hospital, where a dozen centimeters of colon were removed, and lymph nodes were dissected. Fortunately, the stage is relatively early, and surgery can be cured. From then on, Xiaowei said goodbye to tobacco, alcohol and skewers.
With the improvement of living standards, the incidence of colorectal cancer in my country has doubled in more than ten years, and colorectal cancer even accounts for 15% of young people under the age of 30. Many people have never done gastrointestinal endoscopy in their entire lives. When it comes to gastrointestinal endoscopy, most people will feel that a tube inserted so deeply is too painful and terrifying, and they will instinctively reject it and are unwilling to do it. In fact, bowel cancer can be prevented. In addition to daily and dietary prevention, colonoscopy screening is one of the best ways to reduce the incidence of bowel cancer.
As we all know, bowel cancer, like other malignant tumors, does not appear overnight. 95% of colon cancers are evolved from colon polyps, and it usually takes 15 to 20 years for colon polyps to develop from benign to malignant. If it can be detected at an early stage and excised with a colonoscopy, the occurrence of cancer can be avoided.
A large study in the Annals of Internal Medicine looked at approximately 25,000 patients whose health care systems commonly use colonoscopy. In this cohort, approximately 5,000 patients were diagnosed with colorectal cancer between 2002 and 2008 and died of the cancer in 2010. Studies have shown that a large proportion of those who die from bowel cancer do not have colonoscopies. Colonoscopy was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of death, with a 46% reduction in the risk of right-sided colon cancer and a 72% reduction in left-sided cancer.
Colouroscopy is not such a terrible examination. Frequently going to the toilet while taking laxatives to clean up the bowel may be a little painful. In fact, the examination itself can be considered a painless colonoscopy. Hospitals are open. Of course, not all adults need colonoscopy, but the following groups recommend colonoscopy to be included in the physical examination.
1. People over the age of 40, especially those who have a long-term high-protein, high-fat diet and long-term alcoholism, should have a colonoscopy on a routine physical examination, so as to detect some asymptomatic early colorectal cancers as soon as possible .
2. People with a family history of colorectal cancer (immediate family members with colorectal cancer) should undergo colonoscopy screening, and those with a family history of colorectal polyps should also undergo colonoscopy screening.
3. Colorectal polyps may recur or grow in other locations after surgery. Therefore, colonoscopy should be reviewed regularly after colorectal polyps surgery, and it is recommended to have a colonoscopy every 1-2 years.
4. Patients who have suffered from schistosomiasis, ulcerative colitis and other diseases have a high incidence of colorectal cancer. It is recommended that colonoscopy be included in the physical examination.
5. If there is a high-risk group with a family history of familial adenomatous polyposis, it is recommended that genetic testing and colonoscopy should be performed as early as around the age of 12, and surgery should be taken in time around the age of 16.