By Dr. Sandeep Nayak, Chairman – Oncology & Executive Director – Surgical Oncology & Robotic Surgery, KIMS Hospitals, Mahadevapura, Bengaluru.
Appendix Cancer vs Appendicitis: What’s the Difference? Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment Explained
Appendicitis pain often occurs in the lower right side of the abdomen. In some instances, this same symptom may occur in appendix cancer. However, despite the similarity in symptoms and locations, these two diseases are quite different from each other.
What is appendicitis?
Appendicitis happens when the appendix gets inflamed due to obstruction at the opening by faeces, inflammation, or infection. It is characterised by rapid development and tends to get worse over a few hours.
Common signs of appendicitis include pain starting from the navel and going to the lower right part of the abdomen, vomiting, loss of appetite, fever and abdominal tenderness. The pain can get worse during movement or while walking and coughing.
Appendicitis is an emergency condition since an inflamed appendix may rupture and cause peritonitis.
What is appendix cancer?
Appendix cancer is uncommon and occurs when abnormal cells in the appendix grow uncontrollably. Several types exist, including neuroendocrine tumours and mucinous neoplasms.
Unlike appendicitis, appendix cancer may cause few or no symptoms in its early stages. Some patients may experience abdominal discomfort, bloating, changes in bowel habits, unexplained weight loss, or a feeling of fullness. In some cases, it is discovered incidentally during surgery performed for suspected appendicitis.
How are they diagnosed?
Appendicitis is often diagnosed by the symptoms as well as the physical examination, along with blood tests and imaging techniques like ultrasound or CT scans.
Cancer of the appendix could be diagnosed by imaging tests, colonoscopy in some cases, tumour assessment and, most importantly, the histopathology of the specimen. The type of cancer and its diagnosis dictate the treatment modality.
How are they treated?
For appendicitis, which is a common cause of hospital admissions, appendectomy is the mainline therapy in most cases, even though in certain cases antibiotic therapy is indicated.
The choice of therapy in case of appendix cancer will depend upon many factors, including the nature of the cancer, size of the tumour, grading of the cancer, and whether the cancer has spread.
When should you seek medical help?
Abdominal pains that arise suddenly and worsen are not something you should dismiss lightly. Even though there is appendicitis is much more common than appendix cancer, any prolonged abdominal problems call for you to see your doctor.
The major distinction between the two is that appendicitis is a condition that occurs due to an acute inflammation that needs to be assessed quickly, while appendix cancer is a rare tumour.
