What Is Stage 4 Colon Cancer?
Stage 4 colon cancer is the most advanced stage of the disease and may also be referred to as metastatic colon cancer. Before saying anything else...
Making Important Decisions About Your Stage 4 Colon Cancer Care
Unfortunately, for most people, stage 4 colon cancer is not considered curable. However, it can almost always be treated. People can live many mont...
How Much Information Do You Want About Your Stage 4 Colon Cancer Prognosis?
Among the first things, you will discuss with your health care team is how much information you want about your prognosis. Prognosis refers to the...
What Does Your Family Want to Know?
When making your decision about details, of course, it can be important to think about those who love you and may help care for you. Many family me...
How Long Can You Live With Stage 4 Colon Cancer?
Predictions about survival with stage 4 colon cancer are based on statistics, and people are not numbers.In addition, survival statistics are, by d...
When Should You Stop Treatment With Stage 4 Colon Cancer?
While we have better treatments than in the past, and sometimes can even treat metastases, we know that many people with stage 4 colon cancer will...
Coping With Colon Cancer When Treatment Is No Longer Helpful
If you've decided to stop active treatment for your cancer, what is the next step?Just because active treatment of your colon cancer ends, it does...
Making A Decision About Hospice Care
Nobody wishes to bring up a discussion about hospice care. Cancer patients and their families both hope to protect the other by ignoring this discu...
Bottom Line on Coping With Stage 4 Colon Cancer
Stage 4 colon cancer is frightening, and until very recently had a very poor prognosis. We have many more treatments available at this time, with e...
How long can you live with stage 4 cancer?
Stage 4 cancer usually has spread to multiple places in the body, meaning you can live only a few weeks or a few months. In rare cases, some people may survive for several months or even a year with stage 4 cancer, with or without treatment. Some studies have found that attempting to aggressively treat cancer that has reached stage 4 can actually ...
What happens if you have stage 4 lung cancer?
If you have stage 4 lung cancer and another party exposed you to the toxins that led to your diagnosis of cancer, you may be eligible to receive compensation for your medical costs, pain, and suffering.
What is the most advanced stage of cancer?
Stage 4 is the most advanced and most serious cancer diagnosis. Stage 0: a small cancerous tumor that is easy to remove and has little to no chance of spreading. Stage 1: an early-stage cancer that has not spread to the lymph nodes, resulting in a good chance of a cure.
What is the difference between stage 1 and stage 2 cancer?
Stage 1: an early-stage cancer that has not spread to the lymph nodes, resulting in a good chance of a cure. Stage 2: often consists of large tumors that are affecting nearby tissues. Stage 3: consists of large tumors that likely have spread into the lymph nodes. Stage 4: advanced or metastatic cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, ...
What is stage 2 cancer?
Stage 2: often consists of large tumors that are affecting nearby tissues. Stage 3: consists of large tumors that likely have spread into the lymph nodes. Stage 4: advanced or metastatic cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, including other organs. A doctor may initially diagnose cancer at any of these stages.
Can stage 4 cancer be treated with chemotherapy?
A recent national study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that the majority of people who choose to undergo chemotherapy or other aggressive treatments for stage 4 cancer do not understand the limitations of this treatment.
Can chemo affect quality of life?
In fact, for someone who likely only has weeks or months to live, aggressive treatments like chemotherapy may end up causing a significant reduction in quality of life over a period of a few weeks. This can cause the ill person to delay making end-of-life preparations or to delay entering hospice.
How long does it take to live with stage 4 colon cancer?
The American Cancer Society (ACS) note that the 5-year relative survival rate for people with stage 4 colon cancer that has spread is 14%. However, everyone is different, and other factors contribute to a person’s survival rate.
How long does colon cancer last?
Treatment may only be partially successful, and cancer may be more likely to return after treatment. The ACS note that the 5-year relative survival rate for stage 4 colon cancer is 14%. However, this does not account for other factors that may affect individual survival rates.
Where does stage 4 colon cancer spread?
Stage 4 colon cancer occurs when cancer in the colon spreads, or metastasizes, to other tissues and organs. Colon cancer most often spreads to the liver, but it may also reach the lungs, the lymph nodes, or the lining of the abdominal cavity.
Can a doctor diagnose colon cancer?
A doctor may recommend multiple tests to accurately diagnose colon cancer. The correct diagnosis of colon cancer may take patience, as doctors use many tests to detect and locate cancer. If they identify cancer, they will also use more tests to see whether it has spread. The tests and processes that can aid a colon cancer diagnosis include:
What tests are done to determine if you have colon cancer?
The tests and processes that can aid a colon cancer diagnosis include: a physical examination. blood tests. a colonoscopy to look inside the rectum. a biopsy, in which the doctor takes a sample of tissue and sends it to a laboratory for analysis.
Can cancer be treated with surgery?
Surgery. When cancerous cells have spread to distant organs and tissues, surgery is unlikely to cure cancer. There are some cases in which surgery may still be a good option, though. If a scan reveals that the cancer has only spread to a few small areas, surgery may still be possible.
What is the treatment for colon cancer?
Chemotherapy is a primary treatment for advanced cancer. If the colon cancer has spread too far for surgery to be effective, chemotherapy is the primary treatment option. Most people with stage 4 colon cancer will receive chemotherapy or specific targeted therapies to help control the cancer progression or symptoms.
How long can you live with stage 4 colon cancer?
People can live many months and even years with stage 4 colon cancer. 1 . How long a person lives after the diagnosis depends on many things, including how the colon cancer cells behave, where the cancer has spread, and how the individual responds to available treatments.
What is stage 4 colon cancer?
Stage 4 colon cancer is the most advanced stage of the disease and may also be referred to as metastatic colon cancer. Before saying anything else we need to point out that not all stage 4 colon cancers are alike. By definition, stage 4 colon cancers are those which have traveled beyond the colon (metastasized).
Does hospice care mean giving up?
What it's important to know , however, is that choosing hospice care does not mean that you are giving up. With hospice care, people are still treated. Instead of focusing on treatments to attack cancer, hospice care focuses on treatments to control the symptoms of cancer, and hopefully improve your quality of life.
Does hospice care help with cancer?
Instead of focusing on treatments to attack cancer, hospice care focuses on treatments to control the symptoms of cancer, and hopefully improve your quality of life. Many people admit that after choosing hospice care they wish they had done so earlier.
What is the first thing you discuss with your healthcare team?
Among the first things you will discuss with your healthcare team is how much information you want about your prognosis. Prognosis refers to the possible course of the disease and how much time you have.
Can you survive stage 4 cancer?
Most people with Stage 4 cancer though can gain tremendous survival increases with judicious surgery (where applicable) and modern, genetically guided, chemotherapy. Cancer is evolving from a fatal illness to a medication-dependent chronic illness, just like diabetes. Related Answer. David Chan.
Is stage 4 colon cancer the same as stage 4?
Not all stage 4 colon cancers are the same. Stage 4 means that the cancer has spread beyond the colon and immediate adjacent lymph nodes. Patient age and fitness for treatment, volume of disease, and molecular markers like KRAS all help to determine course of treatment.
How long does colon cancer last?
The short answer is: The survival in a patient with stage IV colon cancer no longer receiving treatment is usually just a few months.
What does stage 4 mean?
stage four means it has speead to distant organs, in your father’s case the liver, thus as we have learned incurable. An important effect was shown on five year survival only in testicular cancer (40%), Hodgkin’s disease (37%), cancer of the cervix (12%), lymphoma (10.5%), and ovarian cancer (8.8%).
Is chemotherapy good for colon cancer?
Furthermore, compared to other forms of cancer, the chemotherapy for colon cancer is very tolerable. This field has achieved exponential growth in new therapies in the past 2 decades.
Can stage 4 cancer be treated with chemotherapy?
Some people present with such advanced disease that the outcome is still dismal. Most people with Stage 4 cancer though can gain tremendous survival increases with judicious surgery (where applicable) and modern, genetically guided, chemotherapy.
How many stages of colon cancer are there?
Colon cancer has four stages, with stage IV as the most severe stage because it means the cancer cells have spread (metastasized) to other organs like the liver (or lungs, lymph nodes, stomach or other organs). Although some individuals may show no symptoms when this spread occurs, other people may develop the following symptoms in addition to the symptoms they had or have with their colon cancer: