Five Bowel Cancer Symptoms You Should Never Ignore

Talking about bowel movements is often a taboo subject, but recognizing changes in your body is crucial for early detection of serious health issues. Bowel cancer is one of the most common cancers in the UK, yet many people are unaware of the warning signs. Ahead of Bowel Cancer Awareness Month in April, we spoke with Mr. Jeremy Clark, a consultant general surgeon specializing in colorectal diseases at Nuffield Health in Brighton, to highlight five key symptoms to watch for.

1. Blood in the Stool

“Passing blood when you go to the toilet is a worrying feature that you should flag to your GP,” says Mr. Clark. The color of the blood can vary. Blood originating from the beginning of the colon tends to be darker, almost black, as it travels a longer distance through the digestive system. Blood from lower in the bowel is more likely to appear bright red.

“If you see blood in the stools, particularly darker-colored blood or blood that’s actually mixed in with the stools, just once and it’s significant, that should be reported to your doctor straight away. Don’t wait for that to keep on happening.” Persistent bright red blood as well warrants medical attention. However, a slight amount of bright red blood on toilet paper, if you know you have hemorrhoids, may be less concerning, but should still be reported to a doctor if it continues for more than a week and has never been investigated before.

2. Changes in Bowel Habits

“If your bowels go from working once a day like clockwork, and then suddenly you’re going two or three times a day and the bowels are a bit looser, that’s something that needs to be looked into,” explains Mr. Clark. While becoming more constipated isn’t necessarily a major risk factor, a sudden change in bowel habits that doesn’t return to normal should be evaluated.

Occasional, short-lived changes in bowel habits are usually not a cause for concern. However, a persistent change lasting for a couple of weeks should be reported to a doctor.

3. Abdominal Pain

“Bowel cancers can cause abdominal pain,” highlights Mr. Clark. “This tends to be a later feature, but it can occur early on, too.”

4. Bloating

“People often sense quite bloated if there’s something wrong going on in the bowel,” adds Mr. Clark.

5. Unexplained Weight Loss

“Bowel cancers can cause you to lose weight by having an impact on how your digestion is working,” notes Mr. Clark.

Why Are These Symptoms Often Ignored?

“There’s a whole host of symptoms, but the problem is that they all cross over with other less serious problems, such as haemorrhoids or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), so people often ignore or easily dismiss these symptoms,” Mr. Clark recognizes.

Early Reporting is Key

Reporting any unusual changes or incidents as early as possible is critical for improving treatment outcomes and overall prognosis. “We don’t desire people to be sitting on symptoms for a couple of months, wondering if something is going to change back to normal, because although bowel cancers usually do progress slowly, occasionally they can be more aggressive,” says Mr. Clark. “We like people to report these things early, as we would rather investigate something and figure out that it’s nothing rather than be looking at things later on and not being able to do so much.”

What Should You Do If You’re Concerned?

If you experience any of these symptoms, or if you’re worried about any changes you notice, visit your GP. GPs often provide a FIT (Faecal Immunochemical Test) kit, which involves collecting a small stool sample for laboratory testing.

You’ll typically receive your results within two weeks of sending your sample, according to the NHS website. Individuals aged 50 to 74 are also offered FIT kits every two years as part of the national bowel cancer screening program.

“If it comes back as positive, that means there is blood in your stools which needs to be investigated,” says Mr. Clark. “You will be referred into your local unit to have a conversation with the team about having either a colonoscopy or a CT scan to check and make sure that there is nothing going wrong in your bowel and [there are] no signs of polyps or bowel cancer. By doing that we pick things up much earlier and they become much more treatable and curable.”