What is colon cancer?

Colon cancer is a type of cancer that occurs in the large intestine (rectum), a type of digestive tract cancer, when a cell in the body suddenly becomes "wild", growing rapidly beyond the tight control of chromosomes.

Therefore, cancer cells will grow from 1 to 2, 2 to 4, 4 to 8, 8 to 16... very quickly and in an uncontrolled way. If it is a skin cell, we have skin cancer; if it is an intestinal cell, we have intestinal cancer. Usually, colon cancer originates from a cell somewhere on the lining of the colon.

The large intestine is about 1.2 meters long, divided into the ascending colon, transverse colon, descending colon, sigmoid colon and the last part (about 15 to 20 cm) is the anus (rectum). The anus is still considered part of the large intestine.

Colon cancer is a disease of older people. The risk of colon cancer increases rapidly as people enter their fifth decade. More than 90% of colon cancers are found in people 50 years of age or older. Both men and women can get colon cancer. It is estimated that one in 16 people living in the United States will develop colon cancer.

It is commonly believed that white people are more susceptible to colon cancer, live in industrialized cities, and eat more meat and fat than vegetables and fruits. However, according to recent statistics, the rate of colon cancer in Asians has been increasing alarmingly, especially among Asians who have lived for a long time in prosperous countries.

If we distinguish by ethnic group living in the United States, Japanese people in Hawaii have the highest rate of colon cancer in the United States, Chinese people in Los Angeles have a rate of colon cancer almost equal to that of white Americans.

After a period of settling in the United States with a similar lifestyle and eating habits to the locals, we Vietnamese people also began to get colon cancer more and more.

Colon cancer is one of the most common and deadly cancers in the United States. Each year, more than 130,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with colon cancer, and nearly half of them will die shortly after being diagnosed. Compared to other cancers, colon cancer ranks second in the list of dangerous diseases in terms of annual deaths, after lung cancer.

It is estimated that about 6% of the population living in the United States will develop colon cancer, and 6 million people living in the United States will die from the disease. Among these patients, the incidence of the disease is increasing rapidly among Asians.

Therefore, this is a very dangerous cancer. Colon cancer can lead to a high mortality rate, equal to or higher than lung cancer. You should prepare yourself with certain knowledge about colon cancer to have ways to prevent, avoid and treat the disease promptly./.

According to VNN