40. Rectal adenocarcinoma

Organ: Rectum

Description:

Most of the mucosa is overtaken by a cancer. The cancerous part has irregular and slightly greyish surface, while the healthy mucosa is more regular and is slightly more whitish.

Diagnosis: Rectal adenocarcinoma

Risk factors:

Ulcerative colitis
Bad diet

Theory:

The adenocarcinoma is ulcerated at the deepest point, however that is not easily visible on the picture. The difference in colour between the healthy and cancerous tissue isn’t great due to the formalin fixation.

Colorectal cancers have different symptoms depending on their location. If they occur on the right side of the body (mostly the ascending colon) the symptoms can be weight loss and occult (invisible) bleeding, which may lead to anaemia and fatigue.

If colorectal cancer occurs on the left side (mostly the descending and sigmoid colon) the symptoms may be alternating diarrhoea and constipation, palpable nodule in abdomen, haematochezia, ileus.

The differences in the symptoms can be attributed to how the ascending colon has a larger diameter than the descending.