Serious Warning Signs Of Bowel Cancer

Rectal Bleeding

In bowel cancer, cancerous cells grow and spread in the large intestine, invading and damaging the tissues of its lining and walls. This invasion of cancer cells can cause functional and structural problems in the large intestine, allowing its contents to irritate the damaged tissues further. When the cancerous cells cause damage to the intestinal tissues, they can rupture many of the highly concentrated small blood vessels that supply the intestinal tissues and linings with blood. There is also a high concentration of small blood vessels in the lining of the intestines to facilitate the proper absorption of nutrients and fluids from the food. The damage to these blood vessels causes blood to spill out into the contents of a patient's intestines. Blood in the stool is not reabsorbed, so it will appear as rectal bleeding when the individual has a bowel movement.

Lump In The Abdomen

Bowel cancer occurs when cells that make up the bowel tissues begin to divide and grow out of control. These cancerous cells grow until they form a solid mass or a tumor in the bowel. A tumor in the bowel can cause an individual to be able to see and or feel an abnormal lump in their abdominal area at certain times or with certain circumstances. The stool has to move through the part of the large intestine where the cancerous tumor is located. As the stool moves past this area in the patient's intestine, it can cause the abdomen to protrude outward in an irregular fashion. This lump forms because the intestines expand when stool moves through them in a healthy individual. This expansion is compounded by the solid presence of the cancerous tumor or tumors in an affected individual and produces an abnormal bump or lump in their abdomen.