Short answer: Yes, it could be cancer, but that's not at the top of the list.
Long answer:
Hi there,
I understand your concern, and the
anaemia together with the chronic stomach pains can be due to quite a few things. One of the most common causes is actually bleeding from a
stomach ulcer, instead of cancer. She could also be bleeding from the
diverticulosis, or if they haven't checked her blood counts in a long while it could be a slow decline due to poor nutrition from
malabsorption.
Yes, polyps increase her risk of getting
colon cancer (but they would probably have been removed at the time), other risks to consider are if you have colon cancer in the family, if she smokes, or drinks heavily, or has poor diet with high fats/red meat/preserved foods.
It is reassuring that she has had colonoscopies done before, especially if it is fairly recent in the past year or so, but your doctor might propose a repeat one on top of an
upper endoscopy, to look for bleeding in the stomach. The might even suggest a
CT scan to look at other abdominal organs, if everything else doesn't quite seem to fit. Be upfront with him about your concerns regarding colon cancer, then it can be addressed accordingly.
Hope this helps, and all the best to you and your daughter.
Regards,
Dr. Teh