Colon Cancer - Causes - Treatments - Study.

What is colorectal cancer?
Cancers of the colon and rectum (colorectal cancer) start when the process of the normal replacement of colon lining cells goes awry.Colon Cancer - Causes - Treatments - Study .. Mistakes in cell division occur frequently.

For reasons that are poorly understood, sometimes mistakes occur that escape our editing systems. When this occurs, these cells begin to divide independently of the normal checks and balances that control growth. These abnormal cells grow and divide, they can lead to growths within the colon called polyps.

Polyps vary in type, but many are precancerous tumors that grow slowly over the course of years and do not spread. The polyps grow, additional genetic mutations further destabilize the cells.

When these precancerous tumors change direction (growing into the wall of the tube rather than into the space in the middle of it) and invade other layers of the large intestine (such as the submucosa or muscular layer), the precancerous polyp has become cancerous. Colon Cancer - Causes - Treatments - Study .. In most cases this process is slow, taking at least eight to 10 years to develop from those early aberrant cells to a frank cancer.