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Ohio State 
Health & Discovery
Health Talks
Colon cancer can have few symptoms; screening is important

Chyke Doubeni, MD, MPH:
So one of the reasons why screening for colorectal cancer is really important — paying attention to symptoms is important — is that the colon itself is, think of it as a big bag within the abdomen or belly. 

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Chyke Doubeni, MD, MPH
Chief Health Equity Officer
Ohio State Wexner Medical Center

Dr. Doubeni:
And it's distensible, it can stretch. The result of this is that you can have circumstances in which you have cancer in the colon that doesn't show any symptoms. And that's the reason why we screen for blood or colonoscopy, as the case may be, because even in those circumstances it can shed small amounts of blood that we can't see with our naked eyes. And s,o it's possible to have colon cancer, and sometimes it causes this vague abdominal symptoms, like the belly hurts. You have intermittent constipation, a little bit of diarrhea here or there, a little bit of bleeding here or there. And for those reasons, if you have symptoms that you can't explain, clearly you should see a doctor to look at colon cancer as a possibility. One thing I will add here is that even though you've been screened, none of the screening tests we use are perfect. None is perfect, which means that having screening for colorectal cancer, either with colonoscopy or the at-home test, does not mean that a symptom you have that may be due to colorectal cancer, which may include bleeding, abdominal mass or a mass in your belly, constipation, or weight loss that wouldn't go away or you can't explain, or potentially iron deficiency anemia. So even if you've gotten screened and you get these symptoms and you're concerned, you should not ignore it. Instead, you should seek attention to make sure that it gets the workup or examination needed to detect, to determine whether or not you have colorectal cancer.

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The James
The Ohio State University
Comprehensive Cancer Center

For more information, visit:
cancer.osu.edu