Medical Advices Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Cancer’

Early diagnosis for high-risk individuals

The diagnostic tests are necessary in patients with higher risk of disease than the general population. Therefore, the study of high-risk patients will improve the results of screening tests for having a higher diagnostic yield in these people in which individual risk is considerable. There are two groups of patients considered candidates for early diagnosis required:

- Those who have a first degree relative (parent, brother/son/daughter) who developed colorectal cancer before age 45. The risk of colorectal cancer in these individuals is estimated at 1 in 10.

- Those who have two (or more) first degree relatives with colorectal cancer. The risk of colorectal cancer in these individuals is 1 in 6. Read the rest of this entry »

Early diagnosis of colorectal cancer

These tumors are the ones most likely to be diagnosed through a screening program for many reasons: they are fairly common, the cure rates of surgery may exceed 90% if treated in early stages and, finally, in most cases evolve from premalignant lesions (polyps) that can be removed to prevent cancer progression.

Evidence of early diagnosis in the population

The most common is the detection of fecal occult blood (searching for blood in the stool that is not detected by the naked eye). The first drawback is the need to collect feces, but the main one is its imprecision. When the test is positive there is a 10% chance that the individual has cancer and 34% of this a polyp. Unfortunately, the test will be negative in up to 50% of patients with cancer (this percentage drops to 30% if repeated for 3 consecutive days). Read the rest of this entry »

What is gastrointestinal cancer?

The alimentary canal extends from the mouth to the anus and consists of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine (duodenum, jejunum and ileum) and large intestine (colon and rectum). Cancer can occur anywhere in the gastrointestinal tract but, interestingly, the small intestine is rarely affected, despite being a portion with a high metabolic activity. In the small intestine is where you place the main phase of digestion. Some data may demonstrate the importance of digestive cancer:

- Colorectal cancer: colorrrectal cancer is the second most common cancer-related death (the first is lung cancer), affecting 6% of the population in Western countries (industrialized) and is the cause of death 3%. 25% of cancer deaths in industrialized countries, 12.5% are due to these tumors. Read the rest of this entry »