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Genetics and Genomics

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Colorectal Cancer Colorectal cancer is a genetic disorder. Colorectal cancer may cause one or more of the symptoms below:

• A change in bowel habits, such as diarrhea, constipation, or narrowing of the stool, that lasts for more than a few days • A feeling that you need to have a bowel movement that is not relieved by doing so • Rectal bleeding, dark stools, or blood in the stool (often, though, the stool will look normal) • Cramping or abdominal (belly) pain • Weakness and fatigue • Unintended weight loss Most of these symptoms are more often caused by conditions other than colorectal cancer, such as infection, hemorrhoids, or inflammatory bowel disease. Still, if you have any of these problems, it's important to see your doctor right away so the cause can be found and treated, if needed. (“FITWAY,” 2013)

Colorectal cancer would be diagnosed after having a colonoscopy that would hopefully reveal the cause of the bleeding, change in bowels, etc. If there is colon polyps the surgeons will remove the polyps during the procedure. If the polyps and/or mass are too big to remove during the colonoscopy the surgeons will schedule patient for an abdominal procedure to remove it.

Men and women both can equally be affected by colorectal cancer as they increase in age. This type of cancer occurs more often in people age 50 and over but is not limited to these ages. .

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends these screening test for ages 50 and over; annual high-sensitivity guaiac fecal occult blood test (gFOBT), or fecal immunochemical test (FIT/iFOBT); sigmoidoscopy every five years, with FOBT every three years; or colonoscopy every 10 years. Fecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) should be done once a year, if a