What Are The Survival Rates Of Colon Cancer?
Surviving from colon cancer depends on which stage of colon cancer you are in. Doctors divide the cancer into stages that reflect the severity of the cancer and also predict the survival time for a patient. The process known as staging tells the doctor how far the cancer has spread. The treatment of the disease also depends on which stage the cancer is in. For cancers in their early stages, surgery does the trick but for cancers in the later stages chemotherapy and radiation therapy is usually required. There are several systems used for staging colon cancer. They include the Dukes, Aster-Coller and the AJCC/TNM systems. The AJCC uses the Roman Numerals I-IV. The Dukes and Aster-Coller use A through C. Aster-Coller system also adds stage D and has various subdivisions. Stage 1 indicates that the cancer is at its earliest stage and has not spread beyond the walls of the colon to other parts of the body. Stage 2 indicates that the cancer has grown through the entire colon but has not spread to the lymph nodes. Stage 3 indicates that the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes but has not affected any other parts of the body. Stage 4 is the last stage which indicates that the cancer has spread throughout the body. The survival rates depend on which stage of cancer the patient is in. The earlier the stage, the higher the chance of survival. The survival rate is calculated as the percent of people who are alive for 5 years or more after being diagnosed with colon cancer. This also depends on the stage of cancer they were diagnosed in. Treatments improve chances of survival greatly. People in Stage I of the disease have a 93% chance of surviving. People in Stage IIA have an 85% chance of surviving. People in Stage IIB have 72% chance. People in Stage IIIA have 83% chance. People in Stage IIIB have 64% chance of survival. People in Stage IIIC have 44% chance. People in Stage IV have only 8% chance of surviving. This 5-year survival rate refers to the percentage of people who live for five years or more after the cancer is diagnosed. Many of the people live much longer than 5 years depending on their treatments and medications. This method is s standard way of predicting the prognosis of the disease. It usually doesn’t include people dying of other disease. It is considered an accurate way of describing the survival rate since most cancerous growths return within 5 years. All doctors nowadays refer to one of the three methods of staging in order to refer to the prognosis and survival rate of their patients. Sources used: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_3X_How_is_colon_and_rectum_cancer_staged.asp |
