Is Gastric Cancer the Same as Colorectal Cancer?

Jump To :

1. What is Gastric Cancer (GI)?
2. What is Colorectal Cancer?
3. Difference between Gastric and Colorectal Cancers

Listening to the term “cancer” can send shivers down your spine! But nowadays with the high success rate of it’s treatment, it need not be so. As you know, cancer starts when abnormal cells in the body grow out of control and form tumors.

Gastric cancer or colorectal cancer are cancers of the digestive tract that have the potential to spread and damage other parts of the body.

Although they fall into the same category of gastrointestinal cancers, they are dramatically different. Let’s take a glance at them individually and understand the difference between the two.

Colorectal cancer starts in the colon (large intestine) or the rectum (lower part of the large intestine where stool is stored before being excreted by the body). These cancers termed rectal or colon cancer, depending on the initiation site.

Colon cancer and rectal cancer are often grouped together because they have several common features. Adenocarcinoma is the most common variety of colorectal cancer. However there are other less common varieties of cancers as well.

The type of treatment depends on the stage of the disease which tells us how far the disease has spread.

After going through this chart, you may now have some idea on how to differentiate the two. The symptoms and risk factors can give you the red flags of the presence of either of these two cancers.

So once you notice any one of these or multiple symptoms or if you think that you fall in the high-risk category risk factors, reach out to your doctor immediately to get yourself screened. If the bad news breaks in, you know that there is a cure for it.

To know more about gastric and colorectal cancer, connect with our experts now!