Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal Cancer: Annotated Bibliography

Audrey Hepburn. Vince Lombardi. Ronald Reagan. All of these famous people have had

It. “It of course, is colorectal cancer.” (Adrouney12) Colorectal cancer is a significant health

problem in the United States, and the rest of the Western World. It is the third most common

cause of cancer worldwide in the United States, it is the second most common cause of cancer in

both men and women. However, the public is not well acquainted with this disease, as it should

be. While colorectal cancer has been ignored for decades, other cancers, including cancer of the

lung, breast, and prostate, have been grabbing headlines for years. The patients of colon cancer

languishing in medical awareness purgatory is slowly beginning to change. The public is becoming aware of the value of screening from this disease. Colon cancer can be detected in its premalignant or asymptomatic stages when prevention or cause is possible. A very close friend of mine got diagnosed with colorectal cancer when she was just twenty-two; she had no family history or symptoms until it had metastasized. My expertise of working in the Gastroenterology Lab for over fourteen years made me familiar with this topic.

The review of the demographics of colon and rectal cancer, and high-risk conditions for the disease, are very important to cancer treatments. The importance of symptoms such as bleeding, abdominal pain, and change in bowel habits is reviewed, followed by a look at the importance of tests useful for the diagnosis and staging of the disease. Treatment of colon cancer is discussed by many sources including surgical approaches for the disease, according to where the large bowel the cancer lies, and the adjacent therapies and treatments of advanced disease with chemotherapy. Laparoscopic surgery is given considerable attention, although it is not yet clear exactly what role this form of surgery will have in the...