Colorectal Cancer
Colorectal cancer, also known as colon cancer, is the cancer of the large intestine. According to the American Cancer Society, there are 150,000 new cases of colon cancer and 55,000 deaths of colorectal cancer every year. Only 50 percent of patients with colon cancer live past five years after they are diagnosed with the disease. Your lifetime risk of being diagnosed with colon cancer is 6 percent, meaning that 1 in 16 Americans will have the disease. Below are some tips on improve your chance of surviving colon cancer.
Instructions
1. Follow screening guidelines for colon cancer to detect cancer early. Patients with cancers detected at the early stages have a high rate of survival, with the five-year survival rate of 70 to 80 percent for colorectal cancer stages I and II. Patients with advanced colorectal cancer have low survival rates. For instance, patients with metastatic cancer in the lung or liver has only a 25 percent chance of survival five years after diagnosis. The gold standard of colon cancer screening is a colonoscopy. A colonoscopy is an endoscopic procedure that allows a gastroenterologist to examine your colon and rectum for any sign of cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, you should have a colonoscopy every 10 year, starting from age 50. If you have certain genetic conditions such as Familial Adenomatous Polyposis or Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC), you may start colorectal cancer screening by a colonoscopy earlier, perhaps at age 40, and more frequently, perhaps every 3 to 5 years. A colonoscopy is also effective in preventing colorectal cancer from happening. During the colonoscopy, your gastroenterologist will remove any polyp, a precursor to cancer, that he finds. Studies suggest that screening by a colonoscopy reduces your risk of being diagnosed with colorectal cancer by 60 to 70 percent.A colonoscopy is a fairly uncomfortable procedure. There are other tests that would also help you to detect colorectal cancer early, such as a fecal occult blood test (FOBT), flexible sigmoidoscopy and virtual colonoscopy.
2. If you have colorectal cancer, try to select an oncologist who specializes in colorectal cancer. A specialist may know more about treatment options or clinical trials that might help you. Your team of specialists may include a medical oncologist, a radiation oncologist and a colorectal surgeon, in addition to your primary care doctor.
3. Research carefully your treatment options. Start with basic literature to learn the terminologies, then move to the medical literature to learn about the latest treatments. By researching the medical literature you will know more about success rates of treatments, their side effects, and prognosis, allowing you to make an informed decision with your doctor.The treatment of colorectal cancer has evolved rapidly in the last 10 years. For a long time, 5-FU was the only chemotherapy option. Now there are at least three options for front-line treatment, often tailored to your cancer stage.The stage of colon cancer is defined as follows:*Stage I: The tumor is local and has not spread beyond the first layer of the wall of the bowel.*Stage II: The tumor has invaded neighboring tissues*Stage III: Cancer cells are found in the regional lymph nodes*Stage IV: Cancer has spread to other organs in the body
4. Ask your oncologist for genetic screening before chemotherapy. Some drugs may not work if you have certain gene mutations, while other might work more effectively. For instance, studies showed that colon cancer patients who have KRAS mutations do not respond to cetuximab. About 1/3 of colon cancer patients have this mutation.
5. Consider participating in a clinical trial. It takes a long time for a new treatment to be approved by the FDA and released to the market. Joining a clinical trial may give you access to more advanced treatments. Discuss this possibility with your oncologist. Once you have joined a clinical trial, be committed and follow the treatment plan.
Tags: colon cancer, colorectal cancer, colorectal cancer, clinical trial, colorectal cancer, diagnosed with, screening colonoscopy
