C Colon Carcinoma: An Overview

There are five stages of colon cancer. If the colon cancer is found in the lymph nodes, then it is said to have reached the third stage of colon carcinoma. This stage was formerly known as duke's C colon carcinoma.

For staging the disease, more than one system is used. These include the Dukes, Astler-Coller, and AJCC/TNM systems. Both the Dukes system and the Astler-Coller system use A to C and the Astler-Coller system adds stage D and has more subdivisions.

When the colon carcinoma is in its stage III, the cancerous growth spreads outside the colon usually to more than one lymph nodes. Tumors inside the colon wall are called dukes stage C1 and tumors which have grown within the colon wall and then spread are known as dukes stage C2 cancers.

In the stage C1, the tumor penetrates into but not through the muscularis propria of the bowel wall. Then it spreads to about 1-3 lymph nodes but not different sites. whereas in C2, the tumor penetrates through the muscularis propria of the bowel wall.

Be it any stage of colon cancer, surgery is used to remove the tumor. This is the initial treatment for any stage of the colon cancer except stage IV. For some cancers, additional treatments may be recommended.

Lets see how C colon carcinoma is treated.

The initial treatment usually adopted is surgery. It removes the tumor and if possible all the lymph nodes as well. After the surgery is done, the patient receives chemotherapy which includes 5-FU and leucovorin. In case, the tumor is big in size and invading the tissue around the colon, radiation may be needed.

In some cases, a Dukes C cancer may not be cured with surgery even if metastases are not present. That is because the cancer may reach its advanced stage and spread up to the pancreas, small intestine, or the pelvic organs.

A person suffering from Dukes C colon carcinoma may also be a person for a clinical trial looking for the use of chemotherapy or adjuvant immunotherapy.

The 5 year survival rate is approximately 64 per cent for dukes C colon carcinoma. These numbers reflect the percentage of the individuals who are alive for 5 years or more. This is because they have been diagnosed with the disease. The percent differs for each stage of the disease. These rates have been derived form the patients who have suffered from the disease in the past.

Those patients who have between one to five healthy lymph nodes have a higher rate of survival than those with more than five healthy lymph nodes. A better outlook for the patients who are diagnosed recently for C colon carcinoma can only be achieved through the improvements in treating the disease. So dont give up hope, cure is available and possible.