Colon cancer is a disease caused by many factors. It can affect both men and women at any age. Unfortunately colon cancer is usually discovered in one of the advanced stage, when the cancer has already spread to other organs, most likely the liver, creating other tumor. This faze of the disease is called metastasis.

No type of cancer can be cured easily. However if it is discovered as soon as it stars developing, the chances of survival increases. If the colon is discovered in the first stages, the treatment usually consists in a surgical removal of the tumor. So, surgical intervention is the way in which colon cancer is easily cured. Anyway, surgical intervention is not possible in all the cases. According to the patient general health and his medical intervention and depending on tumors stage and status, a surgery can be performed. Surgical intervention however don not mean the disease healing. Sometimes other cancer tumors can appear in the same area after the cancer has been removed through surgery.



If the tumor is localized in one place, the safe removal of the tumor and any surrounding affected tissue through surgery can be possible. There are different types of surgery that can be used to remove cancer. The most common in the surgery in which the layers of cancer cells are removed separately. Each layer is examined before the removal. So, only the layers with cancer are removed, while the healthy tissue remains intact. In cryosurgery cancer cells are frozen and then destroyed using a very cold material, such as liquid nitrogen. The laser surgery is the intervention in which heat or light from a laser are used to destroy the cancer cells from the colon.

Another surgery intervention is that in which a large incision is made in the abdominal wall. The infected section of the colon is removed along with the lymph nodes. The removal of the lymph nodes also reduces the risk of cancer reoccurring.

In some cases a significant amount of the colon or rectum is diseased and a colostomy is necessary. Most of the times the colostomy is temporary but they are necessary to allow the colon to heal properly after surgery.



Other treatments such as chemotherapy or radiation may be used in addition to surgery. When colon cancer is easy to cure, surgery is the only procedure that is applied on a cancer patient. When surgery has to be accompanied by chemo or other interventions, the cancer has passed the earliest stages and it is not simple to treat. However, after surgery regular medical check will be necessary to control the organism evolution and see if the cancer has reoccurred or it has been cured.