Gastrointestinal cancer, or cancer of the digestive system, includes cancers of the esophagus, gallbladder, liver, pancreas, stomach, small intestine, large intestine (colon) and rectum. Some form of gastrointestinal cancer is newly diagnosed in more than 250,000 Americans annually. This figure amounts to about 20 percent of all newly diagnosed cancers every year.
While the cause of many types of gastrointestinal cancers is unknown, some types of cancers have “lifestyle” risk factors. These risk factors include excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, and diets high in animal fat and/or salted, cured or processed meats, such as bacon, ham and salami.
Genetics and family history notwithstanding, other risk factors for gastrointestinal cancers include obesity, chronic pancreatitis and increasing age.
In general, cancer begins when an error (mutation) occurs in a cell’s DNA. The mutation causes the cell to grow and divide at a rapid rate and to continue living when normal cells would die. The accumulating cancerous cells form a tumor that can invade nearby structures. The cancer cells can break off from the tumor and spread throughout the body (metastisis).
