Colon Cancer

Colon Cancer Blood Test: Diagnosing Colon Cancer

In colon cancer tests, the stool is generally examined whether it has hidden blood and this process is called a colon cancer blood test. Further, since anemia is a possible trigger, the colon cancer test will also include testing your blood in a wider range, including monocytes, leucocytes, ESR level, erythrocytes, white blood cells, red blood cell counts, and the level of iron and so on.

This test for colon cancer alone does not help the physician to arrive at any conclusion or hypothesis whether there is possibility of colon cancer. This is because blood tests are very general in nature and are also used for various types of diseases, and not for colon cancer testing alone.

Thus colon cancer testing combines both the colon cancer blood test, and other procedures to consider whether a person has any symptoms of colon cancer. This has to be supplemented by a more detailed examination of the patient.

Five tests are commonly used to screen for colorectal cancer: 

A fecal occult blood test checks whether the stool of the patient contains blood which can be seen through a microscope. Recurring blood in the stool may be a sign of polyps, or cancer. But which type of cancer?  Whether it is cancer elsewhere or whether it is due to possible colon cancer it has to be judged by using further techniques?

Physicians or oncologists – cancer specialists – use a procedure called Sigmoidoscopy for colon cancer testing, which involves the insertion of a very small tube with a light and lens.  This allows the doctors to view the lower part of the colon and the rectum to see whether there is any sign of injury induced bleeding, or due to other causes such as a rupture, (which is highly likely in normal life – except in cases of a severe accident), hemorrhoids, or mass of flesh that is not supposed to there, called tumors. If there is one, the physician will take a bit of that ‘tumor’ for a biopsy, to check for cancer.

A sigmoidoscopy and a Digital Rectal Examination may be combined together to screen the lower colon and rectum for testing for colon cancer.

Further a barium meal is given to the patient after an enema, and a series of x-rays are taken of the lower Gastro Intestinal Tract (colon). Barium is a silver white metallic compound and x-rays are reflected off of it, so it is useful in deciding whether a further test is required for colon cancer testing.

Another procedure called an colonoscopy is inserted again from the rectum, and is similar to the other procedures. This scope looks inside the whole of the colon to check again for bleeding, abnormal growth, tissue coloration, ulcers, etc. It also has a tool to remove polyps or tissue samples, which are checked under a microscope for signs of cancer of the colon.

Thus, colon cancer blood testing alone is not enough.

Colon Cancer