Rectal Cancer Health Article

Definition

The rectum is the portion of the large bowel that lies in the pelvis, terminating at the anus. Cancer of the rectum is the disease characterized by the development of malignant cells in the lining or epithelium of the rectum. Malignant cells have changed such that they lose normal control mechanisms governing growth. These cells may invade surrounding local tissue or they may spread throughout the body and invade other organ systems.

Description

The rectum is the continuation of the colon (part of the large bowel) after it leaves the abdomen and descends into the pelvis. Anatomically, it is divided into equal thirds; the upper, mid, and lower rectum.

The pelvis and other organs in the pelvis form boundaries to the rectum. Behind, or more accurately, posterior to the rectum is the sacrum (the lowest portion of the spine, closest to the pelvis). Laterally, on the sides, the rectum is bounded by soft tissue and bone. In front, the rectum is bounded by different organs in the male and female. In the male, the bladder and prostate are present. In the female, the vagina, uterus, and ovaries are present.

The upper rectum receives its blood supply from branches of the inferior mesenteric artery from the abdomen. The lower rectum has blood vessels entering from the sides of the pelvis. Lymph, a protein-rich fluid that bathes the cells of the body, is transported in small channels known as lymphatics. These channels run with the blood supply of the rectum. Lymph nodes are small filters through which the lymph flows on its way back to the blood stream. Cancer spreads elsewhere in the body by invading the lymph and vascular systems.

When a cell or cells lining the rectum become malignant, they first grow locally and may invade partially or totally through the wall of the rectum. The tumor here may invade surrounding tissue or the organs that bound it, a process known as local invasion. In this process, the tumor penetrates and may invade the lymphatics or the capillaries locally and gain access to the circulation in this way. As the malignant cells work their way to other areas of the body, they again become locally invasive in the new area to which they have spread. These tumor deposits, originating in the primary tumor in the rectum, are then known as metastasis. If metastases are found in the regional lymph nodes, they are known as regional metastases. If they are distant from the primary tumor, they are known as distant metastases. The patient with distant metastases may have widespread disease, also referred to as systemic disease. Thus the cancer originating in the rectum begins locally and, given time, may become systemic.

By the time the primary tumor is originally detected, it is usually larger than one centimeter (about 3/8 inch) in size and has over a million cells. This amount of growth itself is estimated to take about three to seven years. Each time the cells double in number, the size of the tumor quadruples. Thus like most cancers, the part that is identified clinically is later in the progression than would be desired and screening becomes a very important endeavor to aid in earlier detection of this disease.

Passage of red blood with the stool, (noticeable bleeding with defecation), is much more common in rectal cancer than that originating in the colon because the tumor is much closer to the anus. Other symptoms (constipation and/or diarrhea) are caused by obstruction and, less often, by local invasion of the tumor into pelvic organs or the sacrum. When the tumor has spread to distant sites, these metastases may cause dysfunction of the organ they have spread to. Distant metastasis usually occurs in the liver, less often to the lung (s), and rarely to the brain.