“How long will I live with colon cancer” is a question that every patient asks after being diagnosed with this disease. But a simple answer to this question can not be given.

The colon cancer survival chances depend on the stage in which the disease is diagnosed, the exact location of the tumor and the general heath of the patient. If diagnosed in the first stage, colon cancer can be treated very easy, and the chances to survive the disease are very high, about 90 percent. That is way early detection is crucial in colon cancer cases. However, if colon cancer is discovered in the last stages, the chances of cure are very low.

So, if you want to know how long will you live with colon cancer you have to know the exact stage of the disease, it’s evolution, the treatment that you are going to take in the attempt to cure colon cancer and how your body reacts to medicines. Surgery seems to be the most useful treatment in colon cancer cases, but it can not be performed in every case. When the disease is very advanced and has spread beyond the colon, to other organs, chemotherapy is the most appropriate treatment. But chemotherapy means only the regular administration of powerful drugs that can stop the disease form growing or it can sometimes make the disease withdraw, and so make it operable. However, surgery can be sometimes very difficult and it can mean the removal of a part of the colon and the replacement of the anus with an artificial one, meaning that the patient will have to wear a colostomy bag.



Today, many patients with metastatic colon cancer can live for years. The efficacy of chemotherapy has also increased. Using chemotherapy, in many patients’ cases tumors shrink more than half in about 50-60% of all the patients. Colon cancer that has reached the fourth stage can also be cured. Some of patients with metastatic disease into the liver can be operated because of the shrinkage. Over the last 5 years the survival has increased.



In most cases, colon cancer that has spread is difficult to cure. Although some colon cancer patients diagnosed in the fourth stage of the disease live only for a few months, many patients with metastatic colon cancer live 3, 4 or 5 years and sometimes they can live longer. Because of all of these facts, colon cancer prevention and early diagnoses is very important. Many information campaigns regarding colon cancer causes and main risk factors have been made in the attempt to make people realize the great danger that this disease represents, because although researches have found techniques to improve the treatment efficiency, colon cancer still remains one of the main death cause among cancer patients.