Colon Cancer Survival
Facing colon cancer
By Jarrett Kruse
Colon cancer is largely preventable and curable when detected early through routine screening. But patients who skip screening or who fall prey to particularly aggressive cancer of the Colon may already have widespread disease by the time they are diagnosed. Colon cancer that has spread to other organs, called metastatic colon cancer, historically has almost always been fatal. For this reason, colon cancer remains the second leading cause of US cancer death, after lung cancer.
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But now new drugs, often combined with older chemotherapies, in some cases are shrinking widespread cancers to a degree that makes surgery an option and complete elimination of these cancers and cancer survival a possibility. Among colon cancers, those in which metastasis beyond the colon shrinks to a single, surgically removable mass in the liver often have the best prognosis. Two of the newest cancer therapy applications approved for colon cancer are being combined with standard chemotherapy in a new, nationwide clinical trial. While chemotherapies tend to target all rapidly dividing cells, these new treatments, along with support groups can be a great asset in the fight against cancer.
Inflammation of the colon can be caused by a variety of illnesses and infections. Some of the most common causes for colon difficulties is that there are many food-borne illnesses like food poisoning. There are many common bacterial causes including E. Coli and Salmonella. This can lead to some conditions like colitis which vary on the intensity of the symptoms to which one is experiencing. Mild symptoms may respond positively to antidiarrheal medicines and changes in your diet. For moderate or severe symptoms of colitis, the condition will usually require corticosteroids to control inflammation. If symptoms persist, there may be a call for an exploratory procedure like a colonoscopy to determine if there are any further obstacles to overcome. Now more than ever there is a plethora of survival statistics available on colon cancer. They are updated constantly by country, region, age group, race and religion. It is important to check to see if you are in a high risk group; but be smart and still get a yearly check up even if you are in a low-risk group.
