MatiasS+Colon+Cancer

Colon Cancer

Description: Colon cancer is when cells divide out of control at the beginning of the large intestines (colon). Your body only divides cells when it has to, so when it starts to divide cells when it doesn’t need to, it’s called cancer. So colon cancer is when this happens in the colon.

Inherited: A family can inherit colon cancer when they inherit one of two rare conditions: FAP or HNPCC. FAP (family adenomatous polyposis) is caused by mutations of the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene. This happens on chromosome five. APC is a tumor suppressor gene, which means uncontrolled cell growths called polyps. These polyps are in your colon. There might be hundreds of these polyps by the age of fifteen. Polyps aren’t cancerous at first, but they can lead to colon cancer in not treated. HNPCC is caused by mutations in one of many gene that fix hurt DNA.

Symptoms: Colon cancer has many different symptoms:
 * Diarrhea
 * Constipation
 * Cramps
 * Unexplained weight lost
 * Vomiting
 * Blood in the stroll

Daily Life: media type="custom" key="9658902"

Diagnosed:

Doctors can scan for the disease using one of the several tests when a patient shows sumtomes of colon cancer.
 * Fecal Occult Blood test – test that has a special chemical to check the patient’s blood because colon cancer can cause tiny dots in the blood.
 * Flexible – sigmoidoscopy – using the sigmoidoscope the doctor looks for polyps in the patient colon.
 * Double Contrast Barium Enema – Barium is inserted up the patient’s colon. Then the machine takes outlines and puts them on a x-ray screen.
 * DNA – Based stroll test – the test examines DNA from the stroll to look for genetic defects associated with colon cancer

Treated: Doctors see how far the colon cancer has progressed. It can be treated with special chemicals (chemotherapy) or radiation (powerful x-ray). These kill the rapidly division cells. Another way is surgery to remove the polyps.

Prevent: To prevent colon cancer you should eat a healthy diet, maintain a healthy weight, maintain an active life style, check if your family members had it, don’t smoke and you can have a test yearly called colonoscopy. Facts: People with FAP can develop hundreds or thousands of polyps in their colon and people with HNPCC only develop a few.

Punnett Square:

Pedigree Chart:

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