Colon Cancer Stages & Treatments

Video Transcript

"The first step once someone is diagnosed with colon cancer is we figure out 'has it spread anywhere,' and that's part of the initial staging of colon cancer. So one will get a CAT scan, often in someone's abdomen and pelvis, and some imaging of their chest, and then determine 'has it spread anywhere' outside of the colon or rectal area, and then if it hasn't spread anywhere at the time of surgery is where the rest of the staging occurs. So the pathologist will look at the specimen that's taken at the time of surgery and look how far it's gone through the bowel wall, and whether there are any lymph nodes involved. There are four stages of colon cancer, stage one to four. Stage four, are people where it's spread outside the colon area. The most common areas of spread are the liver and the lungs. Stage one is the earliest stage of colon cancer, where there are no lymph nodes involved; it hasn't spread outside the local colon or rectal area, and it hasn't gone very far through the bowel wall. Stage two disease are patients where it's gone a little bit more through the bowel wall, but no lymph nodes are involved and again, no spread to other organs. Stage three disease is no spread to other organs, but it did involve some of the lymph nodes in the nearby area. The reason that this is most important when we treat patients is it determines what's the best treatment for patients. So most patients will still have some surgery to remove the primary lesion that's in their colon. For patients with stage one to three disease, surgery is the first step, and then some patients with stage two, and most patients with stage three disease, should get chemotherapy after for approximately six months. For patients where it's stage four, where it's spread to other organs, there's a whole variety of treatment schema, and it really depends on the extent of the spread of the disease, and how the patient's doing, how the patient is feeling at the time when they're diagnosed."