Colon Cancer Stage 4 Treatments for Metastatic Colon Cancer
What can you expect with a colon cancer stage 4 diagnosis? At this stage, the tumor is already metastatic. It would have already spread to distant organs inside your body.
Treatments recommended for metastatic bowel tumor can run from extensive surgery to a combination of different types of treatments.
Is stage four colon cancer curable with treatment?
Unfortunately, most cases of stage 4 bowel cancer are not curable unlike the early stages.
At the advanced stage, it has spread further not only to nearby tissues and lymph nodes but also to distant organs such as the liver and the lungs. It is able to go to the liver usually because it is carried by your blood that comes from the intestinal walls and the rectum.
What are possible treatments for stage 4 colon cancer?
Treatment options can vary. Possible types of treatment that your doctor will recommend are the following...
1. Extensive surgery - involves resectioning of your bowel.
The cancerous part of the bowel is removed or cut off and the rest of the healthy sections are joined together.
Surgery is the main treatment performed for colon cancer stage 4 but it is not enough for a tumor this advanced. It is usually recommended to relieve symptoms such as obstruction in the intestines.
Surgery can be combined with chemotherapy.
2. Dessication - is a method of treatment in lieu of surgery. It is recommended for those with colon cancer stage 4 who are too weak to undergo surgery.
In dessication, either of the 2 processes to dry out and shrink the tumor is done:
the use of a cautery device to apply electrical charge to the tumor, and
the use of Argon plasma coagulator.
Again, dessication doesn't cure the metastatic tumor just like the other types of treatments. It only makes the tumor smaller which relieves the symptoms.
3. Chemotherapy - involves one type of chemo drug or a combination of chemo drugs.
Will chemotherapy help the patient with stage 4 colon cancer?
If the tumor has invaded only the liver, chemotherapy medicines are administered directly onto the artery that supplies blood to the liver. But if the tumor has moved beyond the liver, it has no impact on the patient's chance of surviving the disease. Chemotherapy treatment is now useless.
4. Ablation or burning of the tumor
Burning reduces the size of the tumor but the treatment doesn't kill it. Again, it is done just to relieve the symptoms and make it bearable for the patient.
Radiation is usually combined with chemotherapy and is directly aimed at the organ where the tumor has moved into.
5. Cryotherapy in which the tumor is frozen.
Tumors that develop in the bowel grow slowly. Most don't give warning signs. Thus, it pays to know the known causes of tumor in your bowel or rectum. And if you think you have the tendency to develop precancerous polyps in your bowel or rectum, get yourself tested. Don't wait for symptoms such as abdominal pains because they already mean colon cancer stage 4.
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