Colon Cancer Facts

Treatment of Colon Cancer

Surgery— an operation is done to remove the cancer. It is the most common treatment for all stages of colon cancer. Doctors use several types of operations to remove colon cancer:

• Local excision— when the cancer is in a very early stage, the doctor can remove it without making a cut or incision on the abdomen. The doctor will put a tube into the rectum into the colon and cut the cancer out through the tube.
• Resection— if the cancer is larger, the doctor will perform a colectomy. This means removing part of the colon where the cancer is, and part of healthy tissue surrounding the cancer. The doctor may then do an anastomosis, which is sewing the healthy parts of the colon together. The doctor will also usually remove lymph nodes near the colon and examine them under a microscope to see if they contain cancer cells.
• Resection and colostomy— if the doctor is not able to sew the two ends of colon back together, an opening (stoma) is made on the outside of the body for bowel movements to pass through. This operation is called a colostomy. Colostomies, sometimes, are needed only until the lower colon has healed, then the colon can be put pack together. Sometimes, however, a colostomy is permanent.

Chemotherapy— is medicine which can kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy can be taken in a pill form, or it may be given in the vein or muscle through a needle. Which ever way it is given, the medicine will go to the entire body and it will kill cancer cells through out the body.

Radiation therapy— is the use of x-rays or other types of energy to kill cancer cells and to shrink tumors. Usually radiation is given outside the body using a machine (external radiation).

Biological therapy is now being studied in clinical trials for use in colon cancer treatment. Biological therapy is treatment with substances to stimulate the body's own immune system to fight the cancer.