How does one get anal cancer

A risk factor is anything that affects your chance of getting a disease such as cancer. Different cancers have different risk factors. Some risk factors, like smoking or diet, can be changed. Several factors can affect your risk of anal cancer. But having a risk factor, or even several risk factors, does not mean that you will get cancer. Many people with risk factors never develop anal cancer, while others with this disease may have few or no known risk factors.

The anal canal is a short tube surrounded by muscle at the end of your rectum. The rectum is the bottom section of your colon large intestine. When you have a bowel movement, stool leaves your body from the rectum through the anal canal. As the cancer grows, it may stay in nearby tissues or spread to other parts of the body, a process called metastasis. Anal cancer starts in the cells around or just inside the anal opening. A person may be diagnosed with precancerous cells in the anal area. With time, these cells may have a high chance of becoming cancerous.

Having these risk factors does not mean that you will definitely develop cancer. Men and women with HPV have an increased risk of developing anal cancer. For most people the virus causes no harm and goes away without treatment. There are many different types of HPV, most are harmless, some cause genital warts, and others can cause cancer.

Skip to Content. In addition, this page includes information on how to reduce your risk of getting anal cancer. Use the menu to see other pages. Although risk factors often influence the development of cancer, most do not directly cause cancer.