Treatment for colon cancer all depends on what stage your cancer is at. There are three primary treatments for colon cancer — surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.
Early-stage Surgeries
For small colon cancers, your doctor will recommend minimal invasive treatments such as:
- The removal of polyps during a colonoscopy — your doctor may be able to remove the tumor, if it is localized, small and contained within a polyp, during a colonoscopy.
- Endoscopic mucosal resection — this is the removal of larger polyps that may also need the removal of a small amount of the colon or rectum lining.
- Minimally invasive surgery — If the cancer can’t be removed by colonoscopy it might be removed using laparoscopic surgery. This is through several small incisions in your abdomen. Your colon will be displayed on a video monitor through the use of instruments with cameras attached. Then the surgeon can remove the cancer and may take samples from your lymph nodes as well.
Invasive Cancer Surgeries
For larger cancers that may have grown into or through your colon, you may have to have surgeries like:
- Partial colectomy — this is where the part of your colon that contains the cancer, and some healthy tissue, is removed. This can usually be done by a laparoscopy.
- Surgery to make waste leave your body — Sometimes it’s not possible to reconnect the healthy tissues of your colon or rectum and so you might need an ostomy. This where an opening is created in the wall of your abdomen from a part of the remaining bowel and allows the elimination of stool into a bag fitted over the opening.
- Lymph node removal — these are usually removed during other colon cancer surgery and tested for cancer.
Advanced Cancer Surgeries
The surgeon might suggest an operation to relive a blockage in the colon or others in order to relieve your symptoms. It is not done to cure the cancer, but to give you some comfort. If you are relatively healthy your surgeon might recommend a surgery to remove a cancerous lesion from the liver if the cancer has spread there.
Chemotherapy
This treatment is given after surgery if the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. It is the use of drugs to destroy cancer cells. It can reduce the risk of the cancer recurring. It can be used before surgery as well in order to shrink the cancer beforehand.
Radiation Therapy
This is the use of powerful energy sources like x-rays to destroy cancer cells, to shrink larger tumors before surgery. It can also relieve symptoms of the cancer. This is a standard treatment alongside chemotherapy for the treatment of colon cancer.
Targeted Drug Therapy
These target specific malfunctions of the cancer cells and can help to target specific areas that are affected by cancer cells and kill them by recognizing the difference between cancer and normal cells.