All About Cancer

Married At First Sight Star Mel Schilling Reveals Colon Cancer Diagnosis: Why Is Colon Cancer Becoming A Commo

Cancer diagnosis has been on the rise and the recent one that made the headlines is of the Married At First Sight dating coach Mel Schilling. Mel Schilling is an Australian dating coach and one of the most high-profile therapists in Australia. She became a well-known name and an absolute fan-favorite after being featured as a dating coach on Channel Nine's Married At First Sight.

Mel recently took to Instagram to announce that she has been diagnosed with colon cancer and would be spending the holidays getting the treatment. She penned a message in the caption and put the whole story behind her diagnosis. With that she also urged the readers to not ignore anything that doesn't feel right and to keep going until you get all the answers. 

Colon cancer, sometimes known as colorectal cancer,  refers to the growth of cells that form in a part of the large intestine called the colon. It is the first and the longest part of the large intestine. Colon cancer usually starts with small clumps of cells called polyps, which are generally not cancerous but can progress into one. 

Symptoms of Colon Cancer

Colon cancer symptoms vary from patient to patient based on the cancer's size and location. However, some common symptoms include a change in bowel movement pattern, frequent diarrhea and constipation, fatigue, rectal bleeding, stomach pain, bloating, and unexplained weight loss. 

Also Read:  Warning Of Colon Cancer In Young People

Is Colon Cancer Becoming A More Common Diagnosis In Young Adults?

Colon or colorectal cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths under the age of 50. Though it is still not established why what is causing the rise in colon cancer diagnoses among young adults, lack of exercise and not monitoring your diet can be the reason. According to Dr. Salil Patkar, Medical Oncologist, Fortis Hiranandani Hospital, Vashi, change in food and lifestyle plays a pivotal role in our overall health and wellness. The increasing trend of consuming processed food, excessive sugar, artificial sweeteners, and carbonated beverages significantly affects gut health and leads to more severe problems, including colon cancer. He also added that the increasing awareness and easy access to medical screening can also be the reasons for a spike in the number of diagnoses being made. 

How Is Colon Cancer Diagnosed?

The most preferred way to diagnose these kinds of cancers is the process called colonoscopy. For this procedure, a tube-like thin instrument with a light and a lens for viewing is inserted into the patient's rectum. It is very helpful in inspecting the inside of the colon and remove the polyps from there, if any. For the procedure, the patient is first asked to be on a liquid diet and given anesthesia so that there is no memory of the procedure.

Also Read:  How NOT To Mistake Colorectal Cancer For Common Gastrointestinal Disorders

How Is Colon Cancer Diagnosed?

The most preferred way to diagnose these kinds of cancers is the process called colonoscopy. For this procedure, a tube-like thin instrument with a light and a lens for viewing is inserted into the patient's rectum. It is very helpful in inspecting the inside of the colon and remove the polyps from there, if any. For the procedure, the patient is first asked to be on a liquid diet and given anesthesia so that there is no memory of the procedure. 

How To Avoid Colon Cancer?

Colon or colorectal cancer can be prevented by lifestyle changes and regular screening. Among the rest, it is advised to eat a balanced diet rich in fruits and vegetables, limit alcohol consumption, not smoking, and keep an active lifestyle. 

China Doctors Find Wriggling Worms Inside 70-Year-Old Man's Abdomen

Doctors successfully extracted the parasite from the man's abdomen.

Doctors in China were left baffled after discovering squirming worms inside a 70-year-old man's abdomen. The finding, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, was made when the man, with a history of colon cancer, reported to a hospital to undergo a cholangioscopy, a procedure in which doctors insert a camera either through the mouth or the skin to examine the upper abdomen for problems. The doctors found that the 70-year-old harboured a tumour in his intestine. They also discovered five parasitic flatworms wriggling in the man's biliary tract, the network of organs that transports digestive juices from the liver to the small intestine.

According to the study, doctors in China identified the worms as clonorchis sinensis, a species of liver fluke that's found in undercooked fish and shrimp. These parasites are native to East Asia, where raw seafood is commonly consumed. When a person eats fish and shrimp containing an immature version of the parasite, it travels to the bile duct, the gallbladder, or the liver, where it matures into adult worms measuring 15 to 20 millimetres in length and 3 to 4 millimetres in width, the New York Post reported. 

The worms in the 70-year-old were discovered when the man went to the hospital to undergo a cholangioscopy. He had been previously diagnosed with a type of cancer that develops in the colon (or large intestine) though the worms are thought to be unrelated.

The doctors successfully extracted the parasite from the man's abdomen. Following this they prescribed the patient a drug for such an infection. The medics also put the 70-year-old on chemotherapy to combat the intestinal cancer. 

Also Read88-Year-Old Man In China Leaves Property Worth ₹ 3.8 Crore To Fruit Seller

Notably, in most cases, the condition is asymptomatic. Patients often don't even know that the parasite is present. However, if left untreated it can lead to complications ranging from bacterial infections to pancreatitis to liver abscesses, the outlet reported.  Meanwhile, earlier this year, in a similar case, doctors in the United States were left baffled after discovering a fully intact house fly inside a man's intestines during a colonoscopy. The finding was made when a 63-year-old man went in for a routine colon screening in Missouri. The colonoscopy was going normal until the doctors reached the transverse colon - the top of the large intestine - and came across a fully intact fly. "This case represents a very rare colonoscopic finding and mystery on how the intact fly found its way to the transverse colon," the doctors from the University of Missouri School of Medicine wrote in the journal. 

'Extra Pair Of Eyes': AI Helps Junior Doctors Better Spot Colon Tumours In Cancer Fight

HONG KONG — Researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong's medical faculty have found that artificial intelligence (AI) can help less experienced doctors spot tumours more accurately during colonoscopies.

AI was especially good at helping them identify smaller growths called adenomas, which might otherwise go undetected, said Dr Louis Lau Ho-shing, an assistant professor of medicine and therapeutics.

He said the team hoped using AI would reduce the "miss rate" in spotting such lesions.

In a traditional colonoscopy, an endoscope, a device with a tiny camera, provides video footage for the doctor to examine the state of the patient's large intestine, or colon.

Dr Lau said traditional colonoscopies required "a high level of multitasking", and doctors who were fatigued or less experienced risked missing smaller lesions.

"If these are missed, there is a chance they can progress to cancer in future," he said.

The AI tool acted like "an extra pair of eyes" by identifying potential tumours in the video footage, he added.

Colorectal cancer is both the second most common form of the disease and the second-highest cause of all cancer deaths in Hong Kong after lung cancer.

In 2021, the city logged 5,899 new cases, accounting for 15.3 per cent of all new reported occurrences of the disease that year. The government runs a subsidised screening programme for residents aged between 50 and 75.

The medical faculty, which has studied ways to use advanced technology in cancer treatment for nearly 20 years, began using AI in colonoscopies in 2021.

While previous studies showed AI could help experienced doctors improve their tumour detection rates, none had explored whether the technology might benefit those who were less experienced.

Between April 2021 and July 2022, the research team recruited 22 junior doctors — those who had done fewer than 500 colonoscopies each — to perform the procedure on 766 patients, with 386 using the AI tool and the rest done conventionally.

Their results, published earlier this year, showed that the group using AI had an overall adenoma detection rate of 57.5 per cent, compared with 44.5 per cent for the others.

The tool was especially helpful for detecting small tumours under 5mm in diameter. The doctors who used AI had a roughly 40 per cent detection rate compared with just 25 per cent for the others. For medium-sized tumours, the detection rates were about 36 per cent and 29 per cent respectively.

Newer doctors who had performed fewer than 200 colonoscopies benefited especially, with those using AI attaining a 60 per cent detection rate compared with around 42 per cent for the others.

So far, a few of the city's public hospitals have bought the AI detection tool, but no guidelines have been issued governing its application, according to Lau. He hoped the findings would result in its wider use.

The medical faculty has also developed an AI-based platform called AI-Endo to help train doctors to perform early stage gastrointestinal cancer surgery.

The procedure allows patients with stage one tumours to have them removed without undergoing invasive surgery, but it is tricky to perform and demands a high level of skill.

At present, a doctor might need to do nearly 100 such operations before becoming competent, according to Dr Yip Hon-chi, an assistant professor of surgery.

He hoped AI-Endo would reduce the time or number of operations needed for less experienced doctors to master the procedure.

The tool, which took about two years to build, helps doctors accurately predict the steps needed for the surgery in real time and can also generate a post-operation report.

The university's medical and computer science and engineering departments collaborated to develop AI-Endo, using 12 years' worth of surgical data, which the team said they believed might be among the largest such sets of information in the world.

Dr Yip said the team aimed to begin using AI-Endo in clinical trials next year. SCMP

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