Can Colon Cancer Affect Prostate?

… Continued …

Colon (large intestine) is pretty close to the prostate

Something that goes awry in the colon can affect some organs in the pelvic. Pelvic region hold bladder and your reproductive organs, including prostate.

The main colon cancer symptoms include pain (especially abdominal pain), persistent bowel movement change, and blood found in /in the stool (see more the symptoms in here). And at its advanced stage, it may also lead to pelvic pain.

Bowel includes colon and rectum. If compared to rectum, the position of colon to prostate is slightly farther away – however it is still pretty close.

Primary cancer in the colon can be large enough to put more pressure to other organs surrounding colon, one of them could be prostate. This may also affect bladder. The chance for cancer to affect organs in the pelvic region increases if it occurs in the lower part of colon.

Other possible reasons

Even though if colon cancer doesn’t spread to the prostate, but it can affect prostate for several reasons! One of them is the side effect of some treatments for cancer.

Radiation therapy is one of common conventional treatment options for colon cancer. Though it is used to mainly target the cancer cells in the colon, but some radiation may also affect pelvic region, including prostate. And prostate is quite sensitive to radiation.

Some chemo medicines also can affect some nerves in the pelvic, including nerves that control the way of how your prostate works. Over time, it could carry the risk of nerve damage, too!

So if the metastasis of colon cancer doesn’t spread to the prostate, this cancer and its treatment are still able to affect the prostate indirectly!