Colorectal Cancer

What Is It?

Not including skin cancer, colorectal cancer is the third most frequently diagnosed cancer in men and women and the second highest cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. Yet, when found early, it is highly curable. This type of cancer occurs when abnormal cells grow in the lining of the large intestine (colon) or rectum. Learn more about who gets colorectal cancer, how it is detected, and what the latest treatments can accomplish.

How It Starts

Colorectal cancers often begin as polyps – benign growths on the interior surface of the colon. The two most common types of intestinal polyps are adenomas and hyperplastic polyps. They develop when there are errors in the way cells grow and repair the lining of the colon. Most polyps remain benign, but some have the potential to turn cancerous. Removing them early prevents colorectal cancer.





Risk Factors You Can't Control

Your risk of colorectal cancer depends on genetics and lifestyle. Factors you can't control include:

• Age – most patients are older than 50
• Polyps or inflammatory bowel disease
• Family history of colorectal cancer
• History of ovarian or breast cancer

Risk Factors You Can Control

Some factors that raise the risk of colorectal cancer are within your control:

• Diet high in red or processed meats, or meats cooked at high temperatures
• Being overweight (excess fat around the waist)
• Exercising too little
• Smoking or drinking alcohol

Colorectal Cancer Warning Signs

There are usually no early warning signs for colorectal cancer. For this reason it's important to get screened. Detecting cancer early means it's more curable. As the disease progresses, patients may notice blood in the stool, abdominal pain, a change in bowel habits (such as constipation or diarrhea), unexplained weight loss, or fatigue. By the time these symptoms appear, tumors tend to be larger and more difficult to treat.

Colorectal Cancer Screening

Because colorectal cancer is stealthy, screenings are the key to early detection. Beginning at age 50, most people should have a colonoscopy every 10 years. This procedure uses a tiny camera to examine the entire colon and rectum. These tests not only find tumors early, but can actually prevent colorectal cancer by removing polyps (shown here).

X-Rays of the Colon (Lower GI)

X-Rays of the colon -- using a chalky liquid known as barium as a contrast agent -- allow your doctor a glimpse at the interior of the colon and rectum, offering another way to detect polyps, tumors, and changes in the intestinal tissue. Shown here is an "apple core" tumor constricting the colon. Like the virtual colonoscopy, any abnormalities that appear on the X-rays will need to be followed up with a conventional colonoscopy.

Diagnosing Colorectal Cancer

If testing reveals a possible tumor, the next step is a biopsy. During a colonoscopy, your doctor will remove polyps and take tissue samples from any parts of the colon that look unusual. This tissue is examined under a microscope to determine whether or not it is cancerous. Shown here is a color-enhanced, magnified view of colon cancer cells.

Staging Colorectal Cancer

If cancer is detected, it will be "staged," a process of finding out how far the cancer has spread. Tumor size may not correlate with the stage of cancer. Staging also enables your doctor to determine what type of treatment you will receive.

• Stage 0 -- Cancer is only in the innermost lining of the colon or rectum.
• Stage I -- Cancer has not spread beyond the inner wall of the colon or rectum.
• Stage II -- Cancer has spread into the muscle layer of the colon or rectum.
• Stage III -- Cancer has spread to one or more lymph nodes in the area.
• Stage IV -- Cancer has spread to other parts of the body, such as the liver, lung, or bones. This stage does NOT depend on how deep the tumor has penetrated or if the disease has spread to the lymph nodes near the tumor.

Colorectal Cancer Survival Rates

The outlook for your recovery depends on the stage of your cancer, with higher stages meaning more serious cancer. The five-year survival rate refers to the percentage of patients who live at least five years after being diagnosed. Stage I has a 74% five-year survival rate while stage IV has a five-year survival rate of only 6%.

Rhodomyrtus tomentosa (Downy Rose Myrtle)

Rhodomyrtus tomentosa (Ait.) Hassk., also known as Taojinniang or Downy Rose Myrtle, is a plant of the Myrtaceae family, the root or ripe fruit of which can be dried and used as medicines. Their Chinese medicinal names are Gangren and Gangrenzi respectively.

 “Taojinniang” was first described as a medicine in A Supplement to the Compendium of Materia Medica. It is recorded in most herbal medicine works of the past, and the medicinal species has remained the same from ancient times to the present day. This species was once stated in Chinese Pharmacopoeia (1977) as the prescribed original plant species of the Chinese medicine Gangren; this species is stated in Criteria of Herbal Drugs in Guangdong Province as the prescribed original plant species of the Chinese medicines Gangren and Gangrenzi. It is mainly produced in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Taiwan, etc., in China.

The root of Taojinniang mainly contains tannins; the fruit mainly contains flavonoid glycosides. Criteria of Herbal Drugs in Guangdong Province use thin-layer chromatography to control the quality of the medicinal materials.

Pharmacological studies indicate that the root and fruit of Taojinniang have the effects of stopping bleeding and anti-bacteria, etc.

According to folk experience, Gangren has the functions of regulating Qi and relieving pain, eliminating dampness and stopping diarrhoea, eliminating blood stasis and stopping bleeding, and tonifying the kidneys and nourishing the blood; Gangrenzi has the functions of nourishing the blood and stopping bleeding, and astringing the bowel and arresting seminal emissions.

Rhodomyrtone: a new candidate as natural antibacterial drug from Rhodomyrtus tomentosa.

Rhodomyrtone from Rhodomyrtus tomentosa, displayed significant antibacterial activities against Gram-positive bacteria including Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus gordonii, Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes, and Streptococcus salivarius. Especially noteworthy was the activity against MRSA with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and a minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) ranging from 0.39 to 0.78 [micro]g/ml. As shown for S. pyogenes, no surviving cells were detected within 5 and 6 h after treatment with the compound at 8MBC and 4MBC concentrations, respectively. Rhodomyrtone displays no bacteriolytic activity, as determined by measurement of the optical density at 620 nm. A rhodomyrtone killing test with S. mutans using phase contrast microscopy showed that this compound caused a few morphological changes as the treated cells were slightly changed in color and bigger than the control when they were killed. Taken together, the results support the view that rhodomyrtone has a strong bactericidal activity on Gram-positive bacteria, including major pathogens.

Kemunting (Rhodomyrtus tomentosa)

Rhodomyrtus tomentosa is a flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae, native to southern and south eastern Asia, from India, east to southern China, Taiwan  and the Philippines, and south to Malaysia  and Sulawesi. It grows in coasts, natural forest, riparian zones, wetlands, moist and wet forests, bog margins, from sea level up to 2400 m elevation.

Rhodomyrtus tomentosa is an evergreen shrub growing up to 4 m-12 feet tall. The leaves are opposite, leathery, 5-7 cm long and 2-3.5 cm broad, three-veined from the base, oval, obtuse to sharp pointed at the tip, glossy green above, densely grey or rarely yellowish-hairy beneath, with a wide petiole and an entire margin. The flowers are solitary or in clusters of two or three, 2.5-3 cm diameter, with five petals which are tinged white outside with purplish-pink or all pink.

The fruit is edible, 10-15 mm long, purple, round, three or four-celled, capped with persistent calyx lobes, soft, with 40-45 seeds in a double row in each cell; seed dispersal is by frugivorous birds and mammals. Seed production and germination rates are high.

Common names include Ceylon hill gooseberry, Downy myrtle, Downy rose myrtle, Feijoa, Hill gooseberry, Hill guava, Isenberg bush, Myrte-groseille, and Rose myrtle.