Colon cancer is the type of cancer that starts in the colon and grows and moves through the colon wall if the cancer is not discovered, the diagnosis not made and treatment not taken. When colon cancer evolves and passes through the colon wall, it can, through the blood or lymph system, spread to any part of the individual’s body. The secondary tumors created on other organs are called metastases. The cells that form these metatstatic tumors are coming from the original tumor, the one created in the colon. Metastatic colon cancer usually affects the liver and the lungs. So, the tumors created on the liver will be also colon cancer cells and not liver cancer. The cancerous cells on the liver will look the same as the ones on the colon, where the original tumor was formed.



The metastatic colon cancer phase is the most difficult to treat one. The chances of cure depend on the exact location of the tumor, the number of tumors created and the number of organs affected by cancer. A person diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer can be given a prognosis of 6 to 18 months to live. This situation can be hopeless and overwhelming for everyone. But not all hope should be lost. Sometimes treatments works and the cancer withdraws even when you least expect it to do so.

Even if metastatic colon cancer remains a disease that has no cure for many people, patients can live long with it. Some of them are actually cured because in the last years treatments have improved. In the metastatic phase of colon cancer treatment usually involves chemotherapy, which is the administration of powerful drugs to stop the disease from growing and to make it withdraw. These drugs can also have some side effects which can provoke you nausea, fatigue, weakness or vomiting, but also the loose of hair. In most cases these side effects can be controlled through the administration of other medicines. The most common drugs administrated by chemotherapy are 5-Fluorouracil with the use of leucovorin. If the treatment works form the beginning, and no complications occur, the patient first prognosis can be more than 20 months.



In some cases besides chemotherapy surgical interventions may be performed. Through surgery the tumors can be removed, both the ones created on the colon and the ones that made metastasis on the liver or lungs. However, cancerous tumors may reoccur after they have been removed on the same organ or in other parts of the body. To prevent this from happening, chemotherapy administration is very important. In fact, when possible colon cancer that created metastases treatment involves both chemotherapy and surgical interventions made with the purpose to remove cancerous tumors regardless of their location.