Colon cancer is a disease not easy to cure if the diagnosis is made in stage IV. But what is colon cancer stage four and what are colon cancer stages?

The cancer is a disease that is usually divided in different stages according to the phase in which the disease is at the moment of diagnosis. The phases of cancer are established according to the disease evolution. Colon cancer has five different stages. The first one is stage zero, the easiest one to treat, and the last one is stage four, the most difficult one to cure. Staging colon cancer is very important because the treatment given to patients is established according to the disease stage. In colon cancer earliest stages, treatment often involves only surgical interventions, while in stage three besides surgery chemotherapy is recommended. In stage IV colon cancer is very advanced because it has spread outside the colon to other parts of the body. In stage IV the chances of cure are very low, but treating the disease is not impossible.



The main difference between colon cancer stage IV and colon cancer stage III is the distance where cancerous tumors spread. In stage III, the cancer affects nearby organs, while in stage IV colon cancer can affect the lungs or the liver. So, the initial tumors create cancerous metastases in other parts of the body. This way the disease is more difficult to treat in these cases. Surgery can be done, but if cancerous tumors have been developed in more than one place, they are inefficient because even if two tumors are removed, not all of them can be taken out. This is way chemotherapy is recommended with or without surgery. Through chemotherapy the colon cancer patients receives powerful dugs which are taken with the purpose to stop the tumors development and to make them withdraw. The drugs administrated through chemo can determine a general decline of the patient’s health, determining him feel also nausea, fatigue or weakness.



In many cases colon cancer is discovered in one of the last stages because symptoms often do not manifest themselves until the disease evolves. This is the reason way today colon cancer is one of the main death causes among cancer patients, although this type of cancer is the easiest one to treat in the first stages. To change this situation the solution is to have screening tests every year mostly if you are one of the persons who have got a bigger risk in developing colon cancer. The risk is higher if you have had a colon cancer case if your family and if you are over 50 years old and have smoked, eat improperly or suffered form colon diseases.