Colon Cancer Treatment

When a person is diagnosed with colon cancer, there will be a series of colon cancer treatment prescribed by your doctor. There will be some tests that will be done to determine the stage of the cancer. This will determine the type of treatment that is implemented. As with any disease, the earlier the diagnosis, the better the chances for successful treatment. They will determine if the cancer is localized in the colon or has spread to other areas of the body.

You and your doctor will discuss your prognosis, you will also talk about the cancer and if it is causing any type of blockage in the colon. There will be blood tests that will show how far the cancer has progressed and evaluate your general health.

Colon cancer is divided up into four stages. These stages will be used to determine how far the cancer has spread, the first stage is the most critical to start treatment. Stage three and stage four are when the cancer has progressed so far, that survival rate is low and treatment can be very intense. The doctors will have you go through a CAT scan which will give them a look at the interior organs, typically with a dye making the cancer show up in the contrast. There will probably be a biopsy of the node or tumour in the colon. The biopsy is when they remove a few of the cells to view under a microscope. They will do a CBC (complete blood count). This will help your doctor to see some very important information regarding your red and white blood count. It will also let your doctor know the level of CEA in your bloodstream. The malignant cancer cells will release an extra amount of CEA, which will help determine how far it has spread.

There will also be an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) ordered to view the cancerous cells, as well as chest x-rays look into the organs and bones throughout the chest cavity. Once all these tests are completed, then the decision of surgery and chemotherapy will be made. Colon cancer treatment is something that is advancing and progressing all the time, there is fantastic research that is done non-stop at the Huntsman Cancer institute in Salt Lake City, UT.