Understanding bowel cancer - symptoms

What are the symptoms of bowel cancer?

In its early stage, bowel cancer - also known as colorectal cancer - usually produces no symptoms. The most likely warning signs include:

• Changes in bowel movements from normal, including persistent constipation or diarrhoea; a feeling of not being able to empty the bowel completely; or rectal bleeding
• Blood in or on your stools
• Abdominal pain
• Unexplained fatigue, loss of appetite or weight

Seek medical advice about bowel cancer if:

• You notice a change in your bowel movements from normal, experience bleeding from the rectum, or notice blood in or on your stool. Don't assume you have haemorrhoids (piles).
• You experience persistent abdominal pain, unusual weight loss, or fatigue. These symptoms may be due to other causes, but they could also be linked to cancer.
• You are diagnosed with anaemia. In determining its cause, your doctor should check for bleeding from the digestive tract due to bowel cancer.

To help make a diagnosis your doctor will perform a rectal examination and possibly arrange for you to have a sigmoidoscopy (used to look inside the lower part of the bowel) or a colonoscopy -- an examination of the entire bowel.