PURPOSE: Early diagnostic
work -up in
patients with clinical symptoms of
colorectal cancer (CRC) is important to achieve good
treatment results. In this study, we investigated clinical symptoms when a
diagnosis of CRC was made in
patients who had a surgical resection, especially focusing on the relevance of
constipation to CRC.
METHODS: The clinical symptoms of 17,415 CRC
patients who had curative
surgery from January 2010 to December 2012 were collected from 24
training hospitals of
surgery .
RESULTS: The number of symptomatic
patients before the
diagnosis of CRC was 11,085 (63.7%).
Hematochezia or
melena ,
abdominal pain ,
anemia , and
constipation were more often found in
female than
male patients while bowel
habit change was more common in
male patients . Considering age, bowel
habit change and
hematochezia or
melena were more common in
patients younger than 60.
Anemia and
constipation , however, were more common in
patients older than 60. According to the group
classification based on age,
patients older than 60 had experienced more
constipation (P = 0.049). Moreover,
patients with
constipation tended to have a more advanced
disease status (P < 0.001).
CONCLUSION: In
patients who had
surgery due to CRC,
bleeding ,
abdominal pain , bowel
habit change and
constipation were the most frequent symptoms before
diagnosis . Although whether or not
constipation is a cause of CRC is unclear, it is one of the important clinical symptoms that presents in
patients with CRC, and
patients with a symptom of
constipation tend to present with a more advanced CRC stage.