Colon cancer staging involves defining the severity of your disease based on how much cancer is in your body.
Colon cancer comes up whenever cancer cells grow in yourcolon(large intestine).
Colorectal cancer refers to any cancer of the large intestine, which includes both colon cancer andrectal cancer.
Photo composite by Michela Buttignol for Verywell Health; Getty Images
The four stages of colon cancer are numbered 1 through 4.
Stage 0 is a preclinical stage.
The lower the stage number, the less your cancer has spread.
Higher numbers mean that the cancer has spread more.
It does not change even if your disease improves or worsens.
Colon cancer is most often staged using the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) guidelines.
These guidelines use pathological staging, which determines the staging based on tissue removed during surgery.
The AJCC uses the TNM system, which evaluates three key pieces of information to determine cancer staging.
With colon cancer, the lungs and liver are the organs most often affected.
A prognosis is typically based on statistics calculated on how a disease acts in studies of the general population.
Many factors can influence your colon cancer prognosis.
These concerns include:
A cancer prognosis usually considers the five-year survival rate.
However, these cancers alsohave differences that can impact your treatment and prognosisif you are diagnosed with either condition.
Does Treatment Cure Colon Cancer?
Colon cancer is considered a highly treatable disease.
Surgery is the primary form of treatment.
It can achieve a cure in about 50% of people with colon cancer.
While surgery can be successful, recurrence following surgery for colon cancer is a significant problem.
Recurrent colon cancer can often be more complicated to treat than the initial disease.
Next Steps With Diagnosed Colon Cancer
A diagnosis of colon cancer can be devastating news.
As you begin to process this information, you will have to make decisions regarding treatment and lifestyle changes.
The urgency of making these decisions will be determined by the severity and location of your colon cancer.
Inform Yourself
Learn all you might about colon cancer and how to cope with it.
Stay as informed as possible about what is happening and how it affects your progress.
This can be helpful if you don’t have family or friends who can lend a hand.
This may affect where you receive treatment and the bang out of treatment you’re able to afford.
Determine how you will deal with time lost from work and if you qualify for disability insurance.
Remain actively involved in monitoring your progress.
Contribute to your health and well-being by making the recommended lifestyle changes to support your treatment and recovery.
Stage of Recurrent Colon Cancer
Recurrent colon canceris colon cancer that returns after a period calledremission.
Remission is a partial or total disappearance of colon cancer signs and symptoms after treatment.
When colon cancer recurs, it usually appears as a distant metastasis in your liver or lungs.
When it recurs locally, it affects the pelvis or peritoneum.
Most recurrences of colon cancer occur within the first two to three years after treatment for the initial disease.
Under certain circumstances, recurrent colon cancer may be restaged, though it is uncommon.
Staging is used to make decisions about your treatment and determine a prognosis.
Surgery is the standard treatment for colon cancer in stages 1 through 4.
While useful, colon cancer staging is only one part of your disease story.
Getting an early diagnosis and treatment is the best way to improve your results.
American Cancer Society.Colorectal cancer stages.
National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR).Understanding cancer staging.
American Cancer Society.Treatment of colon cancer, by stage.
MD Anderson Cancer Center.Cancer grade vs. cancer stage.
MedlinePlus.Understanding your cancer prognosis.
National Cancer Institute.Colon cancer treatment (PDQ) - health professional treatment.
2019;14(2):89-103. doi:10.5114/pg.2018.81072
American Cancer Society.Living as a colorectal cancer survivor.
Cancer Research Institute.HelpBook: what to do if cancer strikes.
2016;14(3):215-220. doi:10.1370/afm.1919
American College of Surgeons.Cancer staging systems.
