DIAGNOSIS
To diagnose colon cancer your doctor may request the following diagnostic procedures:
- Colonoscopy
- CT Colonography
- Air-contrast barium enema
Other types of imaging exams that your doctor may order include:
- Abdominal and Pelvic CT
- PET/CT
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the body
- Endorectal ultrasound
TREATMENT
Contingent upon the size and degree of how the disease has spread, patients may need to experience a medical procedure, excising a part or the entirety of the colon, to eliminate the tumor. In some patients, a procedure called an ileostomy or colostomy might be required to redirect bowel contents into an external reservoir. Severe cases may require radiation treatment therapy (normally joined with chemotherapy) preceding surgery. This is typically given as:
External Beam Therapy: This treatment utilizes radiation beams such as high-powered x-rays focused directly at a patient’s tumor throughout one to about a month and a half. These high energy beams convey radiation to the patient’s tumor to devastate the cancer cells whilst limiting the consequences for the encompassing healthy tissues. Most normal symptoms are weakness and changes in defecation rate.
Much of the time, chemotherapy might be utilized, either as an independent treatment or in combination with radiation treatment. Chemotherapy is given to diminish the opportunity of the tumor returning somewhere else in the body or to diminish the measure of tumor all through the body if the entirety of the tumor(s) can’t be expelled carefully. It is typically given after some time and rotated with times of no treatment. Symptoms, for example, abnormal blood-cell counts, fatigue, diarrhea, mouth sores, and a compromised immune system may occur.
