Ulcerative Colitis Symptoms Can Lead To Colorectal CancerColitis is an inflammation causing bowel affecting disease. The most common form is known as ulcerative colitis. It affects the colon and can later lead to colon cancer. Treatment at the earliest is therefore vital. Otherwise, ulcerative colitis symptoms will become unmanageable. Ulcerative colitis predominantly affects people in the 15 to 30 years age bracket, unlike ischamic colitis which affects those 50 years or older. The symptoms develop over a period of time. When ulcerative colitis persists for more than 6 months it becomes chronic. At this juncture diarrhea is the most common symptom. Sometimes the diarrhea may be bloody. Mucus may accompany the stools. A patient of ulcerative colitis complains of fever, abdominal cramps and noises, nausea and vomiting, tendency to defecate, weight loss, pain, and inflammation. This last symptom can occur anywhere in the colon. However, it mostly occurs on the distal portion of the large intestine and on its left side. The inflammation can spread from one part of the colon to another. The severity of the inflammation may vary from time to time and from patient to patient. Sometimes in a patient, the inflammation subsides completely only to reappear several years thereafter. This makes prediction of the outlook very difficult. Over time, inflammatory changes in the colon mucosa are discernible. A patient who has suffered ulcerative colitis for approximately 10 years carries a substantial risk of colorectal cancer. This possibility becomes real because of the degenerative changes in the colorectal mucosa/submucosal tissue. After such a long duration of suffering from inflammation due to ulcerative colitis, iritis, migratory polyarthritis, fingertip clubbing, and other such auto immune complications occur. Even the formation of fistula cannot be entirely ruled out, although rare. Unlike Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis is restricted to the colon. The exact cause of ulcerative colitis is still unknown, although hereditary tendency towards the disease has been found. It is suspected that ulcerative colitis may be an auto immune disorder. It is known to occur more often in smokers who have kicked the habit. It has been found that in such patients, the mucosal lining protecting the colon becomes weak. Thereafter, bacteria in the colon attack the cells lining the weakened colon. The immune system reacts by fighting the bacteria. This surprisingly causes ulcers in the colon lining at more than one location. It has been also found that resumption of smoking at this stage slows down the degenerative changes into colorectal cancer. Since the causative mechanism of ulcerative colitis may involve a combination of bacterial infection, genetic propensity, and environmental factors, treatments for the illness seem to be on the anvil in the near future. In view of the danger of the illness transforming into full fledged colorectal cancer, a colon biopsy becomes necessary every few months. Medications for the ulcerative colitis symptoms should be avoided as far as possible. This is because some of the administered immunosuppressant drugs, loperamide, and corticosteroids can cause secondary complications or worsen the illness. |