Colon Carcinoma

Adeno is a prefix that means gland. This means that Adenocarcinoma is a cancer of any of the glands in our body. But before discussing about the Adeno carcinoma of colon, you must know that colorectal cancer can take shape in many forms, such as adenocarcinoma, lymphoma, leiomyosarcoma, melanoma and neuroendocrine tumors. Out of these, adenocarcinoma is the most common and accounts for nearly 90 to 95 percent of all colorectal cancers.

The role of a gland in our bodily function is to secrete things. Hence, they can either be classified into endocrine or exocrine. Endocrine glands secrete things like hormones into the bloodstream. Exocrine glands, on the other hand, secrete things that the body removes such as, mucus and sweat.

A carcinoma is a malignant tumor, which starts in the epithelial tissue. Epithelial tissues can be of two types; lining or glandular. All glands are made up of glandular epithelial tissues. A carcinoma is a cancer of the epithelial tissue.

So, what are the causes of an adenocarcinoma?

All adenocarcinomas develop from adenomas. An adenoma is a harmless tumor that stems out of epithelial tissues. They are, more commonly, referred to as adenomatous polyps. These polyps start out as benign, but in due course of time, if untreated, they develop into malignant ones.

The sad thing about this disease is that in the initial stages of the cancer, when the polyp is harmless, there are no symptoms whatsoever, to indicate whether your body has the potentialities of developing the disease.

Hence, whether you have the symptoms or not, whether you think you can be touched by this disease or not, you must take all precautions earlier on to keep this risk at bay. And, what better way to prevent this disease, than to go for regular colon cancer screenings, once you touch your 50's?

Generally, the risk of developing a colon cancer increases as you grow older. This is what is known as an average risk situation. The other risks are the personal factors and the family medical history. If you, or anybody in the family, had developed a cancer previously, then your chances of getting it also become higher. This, in medical terms, is known as a high risk situation.

The other factors that cause the cancer are increased habitual intake of alcohol, insulin dependency in diabetics, high-fat and high-cholesterol diets, low-fiber diets, a sedentary lifestyle and inflammatory bowel diseases such as colitis, etc. Some researchers also believe that obesity could also be a major contributor to the development of this disease.

A peculiar picture gets painted every time we look into the statistics of the occurrence of this disease. It seems the Americans and the Europeans are more at risk of falling pray to the disease rather than the Asian communities.

Hence, it becomes absolutely necessary for all of us to take precautionary measures from time to time, so that the onset of adenocarcinoma of colon can be kept at bay for as long as possible.