Even if colon cancer has been treated, unfortunately, it does not mean that it has been cured forever. In some diseases, such as chickenpox, if you develop it once, you can not make it again, but this is not cancer case. In fact you can not consider yourself actually cured after treatment is over. It has to pass at least five years after that time to stop fearing the disease. You may ask why is this so. Well, even if colon cancer has been treated in the first place and the primary tumor has been removed or cured, the cancer can reappear in the same location or it can be formed as metastases. In most cases, the cancer is not formed as a primary tumor again, it is present as metastases.

How and why does colon cancer reoccur is not known. However, doctors recommend attention and a high level of care to all those things that may indicate that something is wrong. Even if the period of time that is set as a reference date is the five years period, most colon cancer recurrences occur is the first years. Some studies show that 70 percent of all those diagnosed with this disease have recurrences after two years. The rate for colon cancer recurrence after two years is the highest one. Anyway, do not think that this means that if you did had recurrences two years after your treatment, it mean that you can not have them at all.

Some statistics show more optimistic results, and only 23 percent of all the patients that have been diagnosed with colon cancer develop recurrences. Anyway, they are influenced by different factors. The risks and the factors that influence the rate for colon cancer recurrence after two years and the colon cancer recurrences in general are established in two ways. The first one is the cancer stage and the tumor dimensions. So, the chances of developing colon cancer recurrences are higher for those who had primary tumors larger that 3 cm. The stage of the disease is another important factor on this matter.

The highest rates of recurrences occurring are seen at those patients who had to treat colon cancer advanced stages. So, for colon cancer stage three, 41 percent of the patients diagnosed in the first place, develop recurrences. In stage two the percent is set at 24, while for those who had colon cancer stage one, at 10 percent. These percents are influenced by the fact that colon cancer spread to other parts of the body assume a growth of the tumor, and a bigger tumor, that has grown until it has passed the colon wall, affects more the individual’s body than a smaller one.