In my experience, doctors don't mention cancer unless it's necessary.
I also had blood in stools and my GP gave a FIT test saying 'this looks for blood in poo'. When it came positive, she said I was going to be referred (non-urgently as my rectal exam and blood tests were normal) to specialists to 'find out where the bleeding is coming from'.
Only recently, I found out it could be cancer as I was referred to the 2ww pathway. For this pathway, they need go inform patients they suspect cancer. The way my GP told me was 'you are young, so it's unlikely to be anything serious.. like cancer... but best to rule it out'.
Now I've had a sigmoidoscopy and waiting for biopsy results. This whole process has taken 17 weeks so I feel it is unlikely to be diagnosed with bowel cancer after one visit.
However, if she went to the hospital it could be likely. My aunt had an emergency colonoscopy and the consultant knew she had bowel cancer from the beginning of the procedure. But as you mentioned, your friend hasn't had a procedure like this which must make things very confusing for you.
You are only hearing your friend's side of the story and she seems to have only given limited information so far. Maybe give her time to process everything that has happened and hopefully you get answers soon.
It would be easy to misconstrue either a fast-track cancer referral (red flag symptoms) or treatment to exclude cancer as treatment for cancer, I figure. The first thing I would ask therefore is what exactly is this treatment for cancer? Just in case the treatment is in fact part of the diagnosis.
I see that you have already had some useful feedback from another forum user. Do bear in mind that you are hearing one side of this story, and the recounting of it. Doctors will say if they do suspect cancer, or would like to rule it out, and make the appropriate referrals to specialists, and/or for further investigations and tests, as deemed necessary. They will inform the patient of their assessment and reasoning.
I hope this helps, and that you get to find out more about your friend's situation in due course.
I have a relative who has gone from FIT test to ultrasound for exactly this scenario.
Was it perhaps an ultrasound (there are several different kinds) that your relative has had?
That is a slightly different route than doing a sigmoidoscopy/colonoscopy with biopsies straight off. I think it is an alternative where because the inflammation in colon is significant – you mention torn bowel/bleed – and doctors don't want to worsen any bleeding given the risks of certain procedures then they are more limited in terms of tests that can be done.
You definitely need more information here. But, if surgery has to be done to repair bowel then doctors might be doing everything in a single operation, belt and braces, with a view to also excluding cancer through whatever they feel they need to do?
Again, I honestly don't know what is at stake. I think there is a lot more to this as others have flagged up.
