There are various options to address the treatment of colorectal cancer :
Surgery
The treatment of choice for colon cancer is surgery. The type of resection depends on the location of the tumor, so that in some cases may eradicate the tumor area simply, and in others that remove larger segments will include healthy colon.
Sometimes the tumor can not be resected, so it should be fitted prosthesis within the intestinal lumen to allow traffic to that level and ease symptoms or perform a palliative operation to prevent intestinal obstruction.
If it has metastasized to other organs, surgery is performed in the colon and also remove the possibility of such metastases, depending on their location and size and condition of the patient will be considered.
Radiotherapy
It is used in rectal cancer. It can be used before surgery in the case of large tumors to reduce its size, and also after surgery from stage B2, to decrease the risk of cancer recurrence. Learn more about radiotherapy
Chemotherapy
It can be used as a treatment for cancer of the colon and rectum from B2 stadium after surgery to increase survival. In the case of disseminated disease (stage D) can also be used as palliative chemotherapy. Learn more about chemotherapy
Postoperative follow-up of colon cancer
After treatment, the mortality from this tumor is due to local recurrences or distant, so it has to be carried out subsequent monitoring to detect these possible developments early.
Currently there is no clear guideline on how to perform this monitoring, but there are a number of tests that can not miss, like:
Colonoscopy : the best method for the diagnosis of local recurrence or metachronous cancer (new tumor in the colon that occurs in a different location from that in the initial tumor was located). Colonoscopy should be performed one year after surgery and then every 2-3 years. If you are not finding any tumor can be performed once every 5 years.
Measurement of carcinoembryonic antigen: should return to normal after resection of the tumor, and it is recommended to measure every 3 months. The elevation of CEA is very good marker of tumor recurrence, and often the first sign to appear, so if detected elevated CEA testing is recommended to locate the recurrence (chest x-ray, CT abdomen, bone scintigraphy . ..).
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