Basic Things You Must Know About Kidney Cancer

Colon cancer most commonly known as colorectal carcinoma or large bowel cancer is basically the tumorous growths in colon, rectum and appendix. Among all cancer related deaths it has third standing in the Western world.

Most of the colorectal carcinomas arise from adenomatous polyps in colon. Adenomatous polyp varies from and tubular adenomas rather like a raspberry on a stalk to a villous adenoma, a flat spreading lesion. All colon cancers start as a benign adenoma, the so called ‘ adenoma carcinoma sequence’. The distribution of adenomas in the colon also mimics that of carcinoma. The annular variety tends to give rise to obstructive symptoms, whereas the others will present more commonly with bleeding. Tumors are more common in the left colon and rectum.

After a brief introduction about what colon cancer is and how it presents, we come to the colon cancer survival rates?

What is it?

Colon cancer survival rate is the percentage of the people with specific stage, grade and type of colon cancer which will survive the disease for a specific period of time after the diagnosis is made. Survival rate is calculated as 5 years survival of the patient.

Here are few prominent factors which define the colon cancer survival rate;

• Location of the tumor is on top of the list defining the 5 year survival of the patient. If the tumor is present in ascending colon, it is 62 to 65%. In transverse colon it is 59 % and in descending colon the 5 year survival rate is 66%.
• Another important factor is the stage and the grade of tumor at which the diagnosis is made and the tumor is noticed. The staging of the tumor is based on TNM system recommended by World Health Organization. According to a study five year survival rate of stage 1 colon cancer is 94% while of stage 3 colon cancer is 58%.
• Geogrphical distribution also plays a vital role in determining the survival rate as shown in certain studies. Survival rate for colon cancer in USA is almost 62 % while in Europe it is 43 %. The quality of care is one of the important determinants in variation of survival rate from one region to another. Another reason is lack of screening programs in certain countries, where the cancer is diagnosed at a very late stage and thus the survival rate is decreased.
• The factors mentioned above are usually non modifiable while here I will discuss another factor which is in your control and it also has a very promising effect on colon cancer survival rate. Studies have shown that moderate exercise can significantly improve the survival rate of colon cancer.

Screening is one of the important steps in increasing the survival rate of colon cancer. There is now good evidence from controlled trials that regular bowel screening using fecal occult blood testing of people aged 60-69 years can reduce the mortality risk of colorectal cancer by about 15%. Those who are test positive for fecal occult bloods are then offered colonoscopy. Flexible sigmoidoscopy can also be used as the initial screening tool, and early results from clinical trial look promising.