Colorectal cancer can be prevented by eating healthy, controlling, and not minimizing symptoms

Colorectal cancer can be treated through primary prevention, establishing a balanced lifestyle and screening after age 50, says Prof. Dr. Cristian Gheorghe of the Center for Gastroenterology and Hepatology of the Fundeni Clinical Institute. Furthermore, Prof. Dr. Gheorghe advises us not to neglect the symptoms even if they appear in relatively young people.

“We know that smoking, obesity, alcohol and the consumption of red meat are risk factors involved in colorectal cancer. This is a primary prevention that starts with a balanced lifestyle, at the center of which there is healthy nutrition.

And then there is prevention through the screening of the asymptomatic person. It concerns the person who does not have bloody stools, has no transit disorders, has no pain that suggests the formation of a tumor and who, through screening, is helped to avoid this disease “, says Prof. Dr. .. Gheorghe .

Colorectal cancer is currently a major health problem around the world. In our country it ranks second for mortality, after breast cancer in women and lung cancer in men.

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of colorectal cancer patients and a decrease in the age at which it is detected. Although the chances of survival are over 90% if detected in the early stages, however, every year in our country more than 6,000 people die from colorectal cancer.

Prof. Dr. Cristian Gheorghe stresses the importance of screening for the detection of the disease, especially since this moment of cancer is “heralded” by premalignant lesions.

“Colorectal cancer has some premalignant lesions. If we diagnose these lesions in time, such as adenomatous polyps, and remove them, we can prevent cancer. From the earliest stages of the appearance of polyps to the onset of cancer, it is a long period in which it is possible to diagnose and treat premalignant lesions or to detect cancer in a curable stage, emphasizes Prof. Dr. Cristian Gheorghe.

Regarding the symptoms, Prof. Dr. Gheorghe says “we do not minimize rectal bleeding, the emission of bloody stools, in relatively young people, 30-40 years old, who should benefit from at least a sigmoidoscopy, because we can have the surprise of cancer. rectal.

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