Association between constipation and colorectal cancer: systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies

Antidiarrheal and antioxidant activities of chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.) decoction extract in rats

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Matricaria recutita L. (Chamomile) has been widely used in the Tunisian traditional medicine for the treatment of digestive system disorders. The present work aims to investigate the protective effects of chamomile decoction extract (CDE) against castor oil-induced diarrhea and oxidative stress in rats.

METHODS

The antidiarrheal activity was evaluated using castor oil-induced diarrhea method. In this respect, rats were divided into six groups: Control, Castor oil, Castor oil+Loperamide (LOP) and Castor oil+various doses of CDE. Animals were per orally (p.o.) pre-treated with CDE during 1h and intoxicated for 2 or 4h by acute oral administration of castor oil.

RESULTS

Our results showed that CDE produced a significant dose-dependent protection against castor oil-induced diarrhea and intestinal fluid accumulation. On the other hand, we showed that diarrhea was accompagned by an oxidative stress status assessed by an increase of malondialdehyde (MDA) level and depletion of antioxidant enzyme activities as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx). Castor oil also increased gastric and intestinal mucosa hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and free iron levels. Importantly, we showed that chamomile pre-treatment abrogated all these biochemical alterations.

CONCLUSION

These findings suggested that chamomile extract had a potent antidiarrheal and antioxidant properties in rats confirming their use in traditional medicine.

Investigation of clinical manifestations in korean colorectal cancer patients

Purpose

Early diagnostic work-up in patients with clinical symptoms of colorectal cancer (CRC) is important to achieve good treatment results. In this study, we investigated clinical symptoms when a diagnosis of CRC was made in patients who had a surgical resection, especially focusing on the relevance of constipation to CRC.

Methods

The clinical symptoms of 17,415 CRC patients who had curative surgery from January 2010 to December 2012 were collected from 24 training hospitals of surgery.

Results

The number of symptomatic patients before the diagnosis of CRC was 11,085 (63.7%). Hematochezia or melena, abdominal pain, anemia, and constipation were more often found in female than male patients while bowel habit change was more common in male patients. Considering age, bowel habit change and hematochezia or melena were more common in patients younger than 60. Anemia and constipation, however, were more common in patients older than 60. According to the group classification based on age, patients older than 60 had experienced more constipation (P = 0.049). Moreover, patients with constipation tended to have a more advanced disease status (P < 0.001).

Conclusion

In patients who had surgery due to CRC, bleeding, abdominal pain, bowel habit change and constipation were the most frequent symptoms before diagnosis. Although whether or not constipation is a cause of CRC is unclear, it is one of the important clinical symptoms that presents in patients with CRC, and patients with a symptom of constipation tend to present with a more advanced CRC stage.