When colon cancer grows it often creates metastasis on other organs. Colon cancer metastasis can be developed in any part of the body. However, the most common locations are the liver and the lungs.

A colon cancer metastasis can be discovered together with the primary tumors placed in the colon. Many people are diagnosed with colon cancer stage four because of the lack of symptoms associated with the disease in the earliest stages. So, because of the symptoms produced by colon cancer spread and metastasis sometimes, colon cancer is discovered.



Colon cancer and the metastasis created by this disease can be diagnosed by doctors using different tests. The doctor establishes if the cancer was first developed in the colon or the other part of the body where it has spread. This thing can be made through an examination of the cancerous tumors samples under the microscope. Cancer cell look the same on the colon and on the other organ where it has spread. This way doctors can establish where was the first tumor created and what type of cancer did the patient developed.

So colon cancer metastasis can be diagnosed when colon cancer is discovered in stage four, but it also can be found years or month after the cancer had been diagnosed in stages one or two and treatment was used to cure it. When cancer reoccurs after a period of time it often creates metastases, not others primary tumors. However a metastasis is created only by a primary tumor, even if that tumor was treated years before the metastasis appeared.

In this phase colon cancer treatment involves both primary tumors cure, if they are still formed and the cancer is now first discovered, but also metastasis treatment. In most cases the treatment applied is chemotherapy, radiation therapy, biological therapy or surgery. Surgery is usually performed with chemotherapy treatment before and after the intervention. However, treatment can depend very much on the exact location of the tumors, the number of tumors, their size, the patient age or the patient reaction to the drugs. Anyway, chemotherapy side effects can mostly be controlled using other medicines.

Unfortunately, colon cancer that has metastases is very difficult to cure and in the majority of cases it brings also the patient death. The survival rates for colon cancer are at an average of 8 to 10 percent, but they can be higher in different countries and cases. For example, the survival rates for colon cancer that has created liver metastases are higher than the ones for lung or bones metastases, maybe because the liver metastases are also the most common ones, and doctors know what type of treatment works and what does not work. The survival rates for liver metastases can be at 20 to 30 percent.