Colon cancer is a disease that affects the large intestine, an organ
that absorbs the nutrients from the food, and stores and eliminates the
fecal material. The large intestine has two parts, the colon and the
rectum. Colon cancer occurs when tumors appear inside the colon and
rectum. These tumors can be malignant, in which case they do not
present any danger and they can be removed by a simple surgery, and
beningn. Beningn tumors are cancerous tumors that can spread and cause
life-threatening complications. If you have been diagnosed with a
beningn colon tumor you must begin the colon cancer treatment as soon
as possible because if the illness is left untreated it can spread to
other organs such as the liver and the lungs.
There are three methods of treating colon cancer - by surgery, radiation therapy and by chemotherapy.
Colon cancer surgery is the most widely-used method of treating the
disease. In colon cancer surgery, the part of the colon that has the
tumor and the infected tissue on it is removed, and then the remaining
parts of the colon are sewn back. Lately, colon cancer surgeries are
done with the help of an instrument called laparoscope, which enables
the doctors operate through a very small abdominal incision, leaving
only a small scar behind.
Radiation therapy is a treatment that involves the use of high energy
rays that can kill the cancer cells. The advantage of this method is
that it can also kill the cancerous cells that have spread and were not
detected yet. Radiation therapy is required when the cancer has spread
to another organ and the surgery can not remove it form there. The bad
part of radiation therapy is that it has side effects that include
diarrhea, tiredness or bladder irritation.
Chemotherapy uses special anti cancerous drugs that are injected into
the patient's blood and spread through the whole body, killing all the
cancerous cells. This kind of therapy is used when the cancer has
spread to many places and surgery or radiation therapy can't cover such
large areas. Unfortunately chemotherapy has the worst side effects. The
most common are loss of hair, loss of appetite, fatigue, easy bruising
and bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea.
The method used and the survival rate depend on what stage has colon
cancer advance to when the treatment begins. In the first stage the
survival rate exceeds 90%, in the second stage 70%, in the third 60%,
and in the fourth is goes down to somewhere around 8%. That is why it's
important to pay attention at the symptoms and start the treatment as
soon as you can.
