your thoughts please

Hi , 

Welcome.… I can’t express strongly enough how important it is that you get yourself checked out. Although there are some common symptoms such as bleeding, itching etc., lots of us that have had a diagnosis of anal cancer have had some of these symptoms & some have had none! Personally I had a polyp that bled a little & other than that & a little itching I had no other symptoms. It wasn’t until the Dr’s began investigating that I began having more symptoms & I had my diagnosis soon after, I was one of the lucky ones & was diagnosed stage 1 with no spread & no nodal involvement. Many people have been misdiagnosed therefore make it clear when you do get checked out that it is anal cancer that you’re concerned about. 

Hopefully this is nothing to worry about but please do go get checked out. 

Nicola 

there is no anal pain and not a lot of blood so trying to get it taken seriously at the moment will be impossible and will leave it for a few months until covid19 on the way out.

many thanks

I had no pain either & the only blood was a spot or two from the polyp, it’s entirely up to you but especially with you prior history I really would get checked if possible. Any anal bleeding should be checked. 

Nicola

My radiotherapy caused a cyst in my cervical spinal cord called a syrinx, extremely rare and causes life long degenerative nuro problems with many doctors appointments recently, I have never mentioned it to doc because its low down on my pain list etc,

many thanks for your reply its got me thinking

Hi, I would urge you to get this checked out now. Don't wait a few months. Those few months could make all the difference to the outcome. You mentioned you'd had tonsil cancer and you said 'nodes SCC'. What does that mean? Please note that mouth/tonsil cancer may be squamous cell cancer  (ie appearing in the squamous cells in the skin)- is that what you meant by 'SCC'? Anal cancer is usually squamous cell cancer too. As Nicky has said please point this out to the first doctor you see and point out the possible squamous cell cancer link.. Anal cancer is quite rare so there's not that much knowledge amongst non-specialist doctors.. Insist on a referral if you're unhappy with what the doctor says.  I don't want to scare you but felt you should know this before making a decision to leave getting it checked out. Hopefully, it won't turn out to be anything sinister but please don't take that risk x

I had poorly differentiated scc to right tonsil with spread to lymph node, neck mass & surrounding tissue.

Surgery  chemoradiotherapy 

After surgery Oncologist said the scc to lymph nodes was different to the tonsil, so had probably gone somewhere else but they could not tell where. But dildent think it was the primary site

However it did not show up on the scans so  probably to small or been killed off by immune system, but chemo would kill it anyway.

I have been to the doctors so much with my syrinx and all the Nuro problems that causes so I'm very hesitant to go as so many just get brushed off until there's lots of blood and pain.

I will definitely go when covid19 is on the downside,

And I thank you for your advice it's a great help 

My anal cancer was an SCC & was undetectable on both my diagnostic MRI & CT scans it was only the fact that I was biopsied that determined my diagnosis. Just to add, a portion of anal cancers along with some cervical cancers are HPV driven cancers & there are links to mouth & throat cancers amongst others that can be HPV driven also! 

Nicola

Mine was not hpv and I know that scc is the prevailing anal cancer.

I have never found any stories or evidence to link scc cervical and spread to anything below the osophagus, so pretty certain the doc will dismiss me and say it's just piles.

As I was ending my radiotherapy I was being to feel the burning of breakdown of the tumour but worried me was it was more as if the stoma had broken in some way because my stomach muscle were working and trying to pass what should go into the stoma. But I found out it was the final breakdown of the linning of the annual wall which the the radiotherapy. I can only think what you are describing is area of the wall with we're damaged as part of the radiotherapy and are just taking their own good time leaving which is good because you said no burning which for me burn I had was cancer

I had nothing to say I had cancer and only found out after spending years of connsterpaysion which has me on my bathroom floor crying in pain having to force stools out breaking them up. Putting the shower holes and forcing water up praying that this will clear my system but it never did and my doctor what a waste of space he just kept given me powers which didn't do a dame dame thing. But someone much of said let's see what easy we can give him and in the first wave of the pandemic I was given an inflection and I had to go into hospital for an operations and when I spoke to the surgeon I told him about the blockage and how much I thought of my GP  and that even after I spent hours of pain it still has the feeling as if I was sitting on a bunch of keys and thought their was something up block me and their hopefully was cancer and after some other scans I also had blood clots in the lungs. And even now I don't know how long I've had the cancer because I understand it's a slow growing one I could of had it for years and might still not know if I hadn't had the infection and I hadn't asked the surgeon it could still be their and the way my surgeon and Charing Cross Hospital have left me and made me feel a big part of me wish I hadn't said a word