Clinical Features, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Carcinoma of the Colon and Rectum

Abstract

It is the purpose of this paper to present the clinical features and diagnosis of carcinoma at various sites in the colon and rectum and to enumerate the types of treatment given in 117 consecutive cases. It has been stated that at least one person out of every 10,000 dies from carcinoma of the colon each year. When one considers, in addition, that the large intestine harbors 8 per cent of all carcinomas, the vast importance of an early diagnosis is obvious. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that a large percentage of cases can be cured, or at least be given considerable symptomatic relief for a long period of time, if adequate surgical procedures are early instituted. The general profession still tends to adhere to the old concept of the clinical manifestations of carcinoma of the colon and rectum, but it must be understood from the outset that there are no classical or pathognomonic symptoms of this condition, and particularly that the initial manifestations are so protean in character, and may be so closely simulated by other conditions, that it is easy to fail to make a diagnosis of an early carcinoma unless one establishes routine procedures in practice. Of our entire group of 117 patients, the oldest was eighty-four years of age and the youngest thirty-two years; the average age was sixty years. There were 60 females and 57 males.