Colon and rectal cancer, sometimes referred to as colorectal cancer, are two of the most common forms of cancer in South Africa. Colon cancer is when you have cancer in the tissue of the colon, and rectal cancer is when you have cancer in the tissues of the rectum. While these two are not exactly the same, they are very close and similar and are treated the same way.
Colon and rectal cancer are some of the more treatable forms of cancer. However, it is important that you receive an early diagnosis before these cancers spread to other parts of the body. Left untreated, colon and rectal cancer can be fatal. Additionally, because colon and rectal cancer affects everyone differently, treatment will vary from person to person.
As with most forms of cancer, chemotherapy is often the first course of treatment for colon and rectal cancer. Chemotherapy uses medications and drugs to kill cancer cells in the colon or rectum, thereby eliminating the cancerous tumour or making it small enough to remove with surgery. Chemo is useful in all stages of colon and rectal cancer treatment.
Radiation therapy is often administered during or after chemotherapy, but it can also be given before. Radiation therapy uses targeted laser beams to kill cancer cells inside the colon and rectum. Radiation therapy can also make the cancerous tumour small enough to remove with surgery and is given during all stages of cancer.
While chemotherapy and radiation are two of the most effective forms of treatment, they are also two of the most detrimental. As they kill the cancer cells in your colon and rectum, chemo and radiation also kill healthy tissue and cells. Chemo and radiation are also toxic chemicals and often lead to nausea, fatigue, hair loss, vomiting, diarrhoea, and many other symptoms.
One of the side effects of cancer treatment that enables cancer to grow is a weakened immune system. Therefore, your treatment plan will likely include immunotherapy to give your immune system a boost. In addition to helping you fight infection and disease, a strong immune system also fights cancer.
Targeted therapy for colon and rectal cancer is similar to chemo and radiation therapy. However, rather than attacking the cancer cells as a whole, targeted therapy uses drugs and chemicals that attack specific parts of cancer cells. This breaks them down from the inside, effectively killing the cancer cells.
While each of the therapies listed above are effective cancer treatment, they are not always enough to completely remove cancer from your body. Therefore, most people with colon and rectal cancer will require surgery.
There are several different surgery options for people with colon and rectal cancer depending on how advanced the cancer is or how large the cancerous tumour is. In the early stages of cancer, a polypectomy or minimally invasive surgery might be enough to remove cancerous polyps, lymph nodes, and tumours.
As the cancer progresses, however, you might require a total colostomy to remove the entire colon. If your cancer spreads to nearby organs, such as the lungs and the liver, you can opt for radiofrequency ablation, which is a procedure that uses heat to destroy cancer cells.
If the surgery is too invasive and you have to remove a large portion of the colon or rectal tissue, you will require an ostomy. An ostomy is an operation to allow your body to safely eliminate stool and waste through a stoma in the abdomen.
While colon and rectal cancer is serious and life-threatening, it is also treatable as long as you seek diagnosis and treatment as quickly as possible. You have a better chance of surviving cancer while it is localized to the colon or rectum. Once it spreads, treatment and recovery is far more difficult.