Can gastrointestinal cancer be picked up on a CT scan?

They found microcytic iron deficency. I'm 17 and worried sick about GI cancer or cancer that spread to the GI tract. I had a ct scan of the abdomen done to check for an unrelated condition and nothing came back on that. Everything was normal. This included a barium meal and contrast dye.

They also took LDH levels, which were normal, but I remembered I had an orange juice that morning and am wondering if that would artificailly lower it.

If I had stomach or colon cancer, would it show up on the CT scan? What are the chances someone my age has this? I go back tomorrow to find out if there's fecal occult blood or if it's just coeliac disease. Please help, I literally can't sleep over this and am shaking from having endless panic attacks. The doctor himself doesn't really suspect cancer and is probably getting sick of me asking if it is.

There's really nothing else going on, no pain or anything in the stomach. There was extremely slight polycythemia (we're talking 0.4 over).

Iron deficiency (but you stated hematocrit of more than 0,40 so no anemia, quite a paradox: is it true iron deficieny?? Have they checked your serum ferritin, only if this is low you have iron deficiency) in 17 year olds: chances of having cancer are about nil. In women the greatest chance is having heavy menstruations, in young men insufficient iron in the diet due to bad eating habits is quite common. If one is loosing weight, preferably with loose stools, celiac disease could be the underlying problem. A worthwhile tumor is almost never missed on an abdominal CT scan. You sound like being unhappy with yourself, and for this reason having panic attacks, and desperately trying to find a bodily excuse for your complains, many people are not willing to admit that they have emotional problems, which is the root cause of the complains. Trust your doc, and have a good talk with him/her, if emotional stress is your problem, discus this with your doc and how best to deal with it.

IDK. We're not doctors

youhave been investigated for gi cancer.
i think upper and lower G.I.ENDOSCOPY can give some more info.----if endoscopy report is normal,you should take it as positive that you do not have GI cancer.
discuss with your doc[he must be fed up] andget some meds for your anxiety problem.