Last updated on June 29th, 2017 at 10:24 am

How your bowel works

Your bowel is part of your digestive system. This system processes the food you eat, turns it into energy for your body to use and gets rid of the solid waste matter you don’t need.

Once food is swallowed it passes through the food pipe (oesophagus) into your stomach, where digestion begins. Digestion then continues as food passes through the small bowel where your body absorbs nutrients from the food, and finally into the large bowel.

Who’s at risk of bowel cancer?

Whilst the causes of bowel cancer aren’t known, it is known that certain things can increase the risk of developing it.  These include:

• age – almost 90% of  people who suffer bowel cancer are aged 60 or over
• diet – a low fibre diet, one one the includes a lot of red or processed meat
• weight – being overweight or obese
• exercise – being inactive
• alcohol and smoking – smoking and drinking a lot of alcohol
• family history – where a close relative, such as mother, father, brother or sister developed bowel cancer under the age of 50
• other conditions – people who have suffered conditions that affect the bowel for a long time, such as Crohn’s disease or severe ulcerative colitis

Signs and symptoms of bowel cancer

According to the NHS,

“The three main symptoms of bowel cancer are blood in the stools (faeces), a change in bowel habit, such as more frequent, looser stools, and abdominal pain.

However, these symptoms are very common. Blood in the stools is usually caused by haemorrhoids (piles), and a change in bowel habit or abdominal pain is often the result of something you have eaten.

In the UK, an estimated 7 million people have blood in the stools each year. Even more people have temporary changes in their bowel habits and abdominal pain. Most people with these symptoms do not have bowel cancer.

As the vast majority of people with bowel cancer are over the age of 60, these symptoms are more important as people get older. These symptoms are also more significant when they persist in spite of simple treatments.

Most patients with bowel cancer present with one of the following symptom combinations:

• a persistent change in bowel habit, causing them to go to the toilet more often and pass looser stools, usually together with blood on or in their stools
• a persistent change in bowel habit without blood in their stools, but with abdominal pain
• blood in the stools without other haemorrhoid symptoms, such as soreness, discomfort, pain, itching, or a lump hanging down outside the back passage
• abdominal pain, discomfort or bloating always provoked by eating, sometimes resulting in a reduction in the amount of food eaten and weight loss”

Types of bowel cancer

Colon cancer

The large bowel is about 5 feet long and has 4 sections.  Cancer can occur in any of these sections.

The colon is the first part of the large bowel and, as digested food passes through it, water is absorbed and what is left turns into stool (poo).

The parts of the colon are the:

• Ascending colon.  This runs up the right side of the abdomen and connects to the small intestine with a section of bowel called the caecum
• Transverse colon. This part runs under the stomach, across the body from right to left
• Descending colon.  This runs down the left side of the abdomen
• Sigmoid colon.  This is an ‘S’ shaped bend in the colon that joins the descending colon to the back passage

Rectal cancer

Rectal cancer begins in the back passage – the last part of the large bowel. This is where stool (poo) is stored in your body before it is passed out.  Sometimes, rectal cancer is called cancer of the rectum.

How bowel cancer grows

There are several layers of body tissue in your bowel walls.  The inner layer – the lining – is where bowel cancers start, usually as a small polyp or adenoma (growth).  If  these growths are not treated it is possible that they can become cancerous and grow through the muscle layer of the bowel into the bowel wall.  Bowel cancer might then spread into other close organs such as such as the bladder, womb or prostate gland.   It is believed that bowel cancers take 5 to 10 years or more to develop.

Can bowel cancer spread?

Bowel cancer can spread into other parts of the body via the lymphatic system. This system is made up of lymph nodes – part of the body’s immune system.   The first place that bowel cancer usually spreads to is the the abdomen lymph nodes.

Bowel cancer can spread via the bloodstream too.  As blood flows directly from the bowel to the liver, this is often the first part of the body to which bowel cancer spreads.

Diagnosing bowel cancer

Visiting your GP

If you think you may have bowel cancer, you should visit your GP first.  He will carry out an examination, which might include a back passage (rectum) examination.  He may also give you some blood tests to see if your kidneys are working properly and to see if you are anaemic – which is common in people with bowel cancer.   Note that anaemia can also have other causes and doest necessarily mean you have bowel cancer.   If your doctor thinks you may have bowel cancer, you may be referred to the hospital.

Hospital tests

If you are then referred to hospital, it will be to a bowel specialist.  He will check your medical history and most likely perform a further rectal examination.  He may carry out a  sigmoidoscopy, which examines your back passage and lower part of your bowel.  A  colonoscopy, which examines the rest of your bowel may also be performed.  If neither of these are possible, you may need to have a CT colonography (virtual colonoscopy)

Bowel cancer treatments

The sort of bowel cancer treatment you will receive depends on varying factors, including:

• the type of bowel cancer you have
• the size of the cancer and whether it has spread (the stage)

Most people will have surgery, but chemotherapy and radiotherapy are common.  If you have advanced bowel cancer that has spread you may be treated with a biological therapy, which is usually given with chemotherapy.

Following bowel cancer

You will continue to have check-ups once your bowel cancer treatment has finished. The sort of follow up you receive will depend on your individual case, and whilst you won’t have all of these tests every time you visit a doctor or specialist, you may have:

• a physical examination
• blood tests, including CEA measurement
• scans such as CT scans, liver ultrasound or colonoscopy

You can get more information about bowel cancer and its treatment on the Cancer Research website.

How can Graysons help?

Bowel cancer is curable in many cases using the methods described above.  Unfortunately, however, some people can suffer severe symptoms for months, or even die, because there was a negligent delay in diagnosing the cancer.

Here at Graysons we recognise the devastating, and in some cases fatal, effect that a delayed diagnosis of bowel cancer can have. We understand the importance of compensation to you as it can greatly improve quality of life for you and your family and provide the care and security that is needed.

If you would like to talk to a member of our specialist team then please contact us for a confidential and free discussion today.

You can find out more about failure to diagnose or misdiagnosis of cancer on our web pages.