Colon cancer survival rate indicates the percentage of people who survive the disease for a specific period of time after their diagnosis. In most cases, statistics refer to five-year survival rates.

The five-year colon cancer survival rate is the percentage of people who are alive five years after being diagnosed with the disease, whether they have few or no signs or symptoms of colon cancer, are free of disease, or are receiving treatment. Colon cancer survival rate is based on large groups of people; they cannot be used to predict what will happen to a particular patient.

No two people are exactly alike, and colon cancer treatment and responses to treatment vary greatly. The survival rates for colon cancer discussed in this article reflect national statistics that combine data from cases of both colon and rectal cancer.

Colon cancer survival rate will depend on

The stage of disease (see Colon Cancer Stages)

The person’s age and general health.

Whether the cancer has just been diagnosed or has come back.

According to an article published in the European Journal of Cancer, tumor location impacts colon cancer survival rate. In the United States for example, the five-year colon cancer survival rate for tumors in the ascending colon (closest to the small intestine) is about 63%. In the transverse colon, the colon cancer survival rate is about 59%, and in the descending colon, it’s about 66%.

(The five-year colon cancer survival rate represents the percentage of patients alive five years after their initial diagnosis). According to the same study, colon cancer survival rates also vary by country. While the overall five-year survival for colon cancer in America is 62%, it’s 43% in Europe.

Quality of care may be one reason, but another could be colon cancer screening programs. In general, the earlier colon cancer is detected, the easier it is to treat. Stage at diagnosis also greatly impacts colon cancer survival rates.

Research published in the ANZ Journal of Surgery found that In Australia, the five-year survival for stage 1 colon cancer is 93%, but it drops to 59% for stage 3 colon cancer. For more information about colon cancer stages in general, please read Colon Cancer Stages. Colon cancer survival rate can be calculated by different methods for different purposes.

The data presented here is based on the relative survival rate. The relative colon cancer survival rate measures the survival of colon cancer patients in comparison to the general population to estimate the effect of cancer.

Do you have stage 4 colon cancer? Don’t give up! There are drugs to battle the cancer and add months or years to your life, even when you have stage 4 colon cancer. Doctors prescribe these stage 4 colon cancer drugs either separately or in combinations. The drug treatments and side effects may be rough to take, but it is a battle to get rid of the stage 4 colon cancer or slow it down.

Your cancer doctor has knowledge of the latest aggressive drug treatments and their side effects. The prognosis for people with stage 4 colon cancer depends on whether the cancer has penetrated through the layers of the bowel, whether there are lymph nodes involved and whether the cancer has spread to distant organs. In stage 4 colon cancer, all three of these situations are present.

That means that people diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer may receive treatment that is a little different from those diagnosed in earlier stages. Recurrence of the disease is a major factor in treating people with stage 4 colon cancer. Surgery may be recommended if there are few distant metastases that are small enough to remove with the stage 4 colon cancer in order to help the person live longer.

For advanced stage 4 colon cancer, surgery might be recommended to relieve or prevent a blockage and help you be more comfortable. Chemotherapy is frequently the first treatment method used in an effort to shrink a tumor so it can be removed. For most patients, chemotherapy targeted to specific organs or tumor cells is the recognized treatment to control stage 4 colon cancer.

Radiation treatments may be used to help shrink a tumor and relieve pain. This is not a cure, but rather is intended to make you more comfortable. When you look at the ACS survival rates for people with stage 4 colon cancer, it is important to remember some important facts. First, these are people who were diagnosed and treated at least five years ago.

Research is ongoing and new treatment methods are being developed regularly. You have the benefit of these newer drugs and treatments and clinical trials. Second, colon cancer tends to occur in older people who often have heart disease and other health concerns. They may have been diagnosed with colon cancer but died of something else.

The NCI 5-year survival rate of 6% for stage 4 colon cancer is from more than 28,000 people who were diagnosed with colon cancer between 1998 and 2000. Much has been done in the past 10 years to improve treatment and increase the percentage of people surviving colon cancer.

The colon cancer treatment depends on how advanced it is. When colorectal cancer is caught early surgery can be curative. However, when it is detected at later stages (metastases are present), this is less likely and colon cancer treatment is often directed more at extending life and keeping people comfortable.

For people with localized cancer the preferred colon cancer treatment is complete surgical removal with the attempt of achieving a cure. This can either be done by an open laporotomy or sometimes laparoscopically. If there are only a few metastases in the liver or lungs they may also be removed.

Sometimes chemotherapy is used before surgery as colon cancer treatment to shrink the cancer before attempting to remove it. The two most common sites of recurrence if it occurs is in the liver and lungs. This colon cancer treatment may be used in addition to surgery in certain cases as adjuvant therapy.

If cancer has entered the lymph nodes adding the chemotherapy agents fluorouracil, or capecitabine increases life expectancy. If the lymph nodes do not contain cancer the benefits of chemotherapy are controversial. If the cancer is widely metastatic or unresectable, colon cancer treatment is then palliative.

Typically in this case a couple of different chemotherapy medications are used. Chemotherapy drugs may include combinations of agents including fluorouracil, capecitabine, UFT, leucovorin, irinotecan, or oxaliplatin.

While a combination of radiation and chemotherapy may be useful for rectal cancer, its use in colon cancer is not routine due to the sensitivity of the bowels to radiation. In people with incurable colorectal cancer, palliative care can be considered for improving quality of life.

Surgical options may include non-curative surgical removal of some of the cancer tissue, bypassing part of the intestines, or stent placement. These procedures can be considered to improve symptoms and reduce complications such as bleeding from the tumor, abdominal pain and intestinal obstruction.

Non-operative methods of symptomatic treatment include radiation therapy to decrease tumor size as well as pain medications. For colon cancers that have not spread to distant sites, surgery is usually the primary or first colon cancer treatment. Adjuvant (additional) chemotherapy may also be used. Most adjuvant colon cancer treatment is given for about 6 months.

If you have stage IV cancer and your doctor recommends surgery, it is very important to understand what the goal of the surgery is — whether it is to try to cure the cancer or to prevent or relieve symptoms of the disease. Most patients with stage IV cancer will get chemotherapy and/or targeted therapies to control the cancer.

What does eating right for Colon Cancer Prevention mean? Eating right can mean different things to different people. To some, eating right means ordering the small fries at McDonald’s with their Big Mac, rather than the large. To others, it means having a diet coke with their pizza.

When thinking about colon cancer prevention with nutrition, think a little bigger. You want to overhaul your pattern of eating. The goal: Focus on a plant-based diet. A plant-based diet doesn’t mean being a vegetarian, although it’s fine if you want to follow a vegetarian diet for colon cancer prevention.

Plant-based eating simply means that the majority of your calories come from minimally processed plant foods, such as vegetables, fruit, and whole grains. If you divide your plate into quarters, three of those quarters should be covered by vegetables, fruit, and whole grains. The remaining one-quarter will be your lean protein, such as beans, chicken, or fish.

Why is plant-based eating best for Colon Cancer Prevention? Much of the research points to the benefit of a whole-foods, healthy diet as the best way to be colon cancer prevention. The “fiber studies” of the 1990s—studies in which people were assigned to take a fiber supplement for colon cancer prevention—taught us this.

Focusing on just one or two specific nutrients or components of diet is unlikely to give the cancer-fighting benefit we seek. No one nutrient appears to be most important for colon cancer prevention.

Instead, it is the combination of the thousands of healthy nutrients found in vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans, peas, nuts, and seeds working together that appear to best protect of colon cancer prevention. Are there any other diet tips for colon cancer prevention? Eat low. Focus on foods that are low on the food chain.

The closer a food is to its natural form, or what it looks like when it comes out of the ground or off the tree or vine, the more cancer-preventive benefit it has. Stick to unprocessed items such as vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds, whole grains, and beans (legumes), all of which are known cancer fighters. Go easy on the meat.

Regular consumption of red meat, especially if it is cooked at high temperature, grilled, or charred, has been linked with increased risk of colon cancer. Choose the right fats for colon cancer prevention. Go for healthy fats such as those found in fish, flaxseeds, avocados, olive oil, walnuts and other nuts and seeds.

It can take a while for a doctor to figure out kids with cancer. That’s because the symptoms cancer can cause — weight loss, fevers, swollen glands, or feeling overly tired or sick for a while — usually are not caused by cancer. When a kid has these problems, it’s often caused by something less serious, like an infection. With medical testing, the doctor can figure out what’s causing the trouble.

The sooner cancer is found and treatment begins, the better someone’s chances are for a full recovery and cure. Remission is a great word for anyone who has cancer including kids with cancer. It means all signs of cancer are gone from the body. After surgery or treatment with radiation or chemotherapy, a doctor will then do tests to see if the cancer is still there.

If there are no signs of cancer, then the kid is in remission. Remission is the goal when any kids with cancer go to the hospital for treatment. Sometimes, this means additional chemotherapy might be needed for a while to keep cancer cells from coming back. And luckily, for many kids with cancer, continued remission is the very happy end of their cancer experience.

Camps for kids with cancer have been around since the mid-1970s. Thanks in part to Betty Ford’s courageous public discussion of her breast cancer diagnosis in 1974, people with cancer had begun to talk more openly about their disease.

Although kids with cancer had always met on the wards and social workers talked with kids with cancer and their families about their cancer, these encounters only scratched at the surface of these life-changing experiences. Today there are over 70 such camps worldwide.

The International Confederation of Childhood Cancer Parent Organizations (ICCCPO), World Child Cancer and the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) have issued a joint statement to coincide with International Childhood Cancer Day (15 February) highlighting the fact that these organizations are joining forces in the fight against a lack of awareness of kids with cancer.

Although kids with cancer is a small fraction of the global cancer burden most of kids with cancer can be cured if prompt and essential treatment is available, approximately 80% of the deaths will occur in resource-constrained settings as appropriate treatment is not available or affordable.

While there have been great advances made in the treatment of kids with cancer and subsequent improvements in survival rates, it is unfortunate that this has not reached the majority of diagnosed kids with cancer annually.

The lungs are a pair of organs in the chest that are primarily responsible for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the air we breathe and the blood. The lung is composed of clusters of small air sacs (alveoli) divided by thin, elastic walls or membranes. Capillaries, the tiniest of blood vessels, run within these walls between the alveoli and allow blood and air to come near each other.

Shortness of breath is the primary symptom of emphysema. It is a progressive complaint, worsening over time. Early in this lung disease, shortness of breath may occur with exercise and activity but symptoms gradually worsen and may occur at rest. Diagnosis of emphysema is based upon history, physical examination, and pulmonary function studies.

Once present, emphysema is not curable, but these lung disease symptoms are controllable. Emphysema does not affect quantity of life, but rather quality of life. There are no studies that can predict life-expectancy in individuals with emphysema. The only known “cure” for emphysema is lung transplant, but few patients are strong enough physically to survive the surgery of this lung disease.

The combination of a patient’s age, oxygen deprivation and the side-effects of the medications used to treat this lung disease cause damage to the kidneys, heart and other organs. Surgical transplantation also requires the patient to take an anti-rejection drug regimen which suppresses the immune system, and can lead to microbial infection of the patient.

Cancer stick smoking Whitney Houston is rumored to be battling emphysema this deadly lung disease. Whitney’s extremely puffy stomach and face gave it away. You can only ingest so many Newports and crack before it takes a toll. Sure hope Whitney gets it together, before tragedy strikes.

A badly shaken Whitney Houston is fighting for her life against deadly. Doctors have told the 47-year-old singer she’s suffering from the early stages of the frightening lung disease. The National Enquirer reported that doctors told Houston also if she does not completely stop smoking, the lung disease will take her life.

Rumors may have started because Houston has had health problems in the past. Earlier this year, Houston’s representative had confirmed that Whitney again returned to a rehab center as part of her battles with addiction.

In 2010 she sat out the European shows on doctors’ orders after developing the upper respiratory infection. The Enquirer reported that the responsibility of helping Houston beat her smoking habit had fallen to her daughter, Bobbi Kristina, who has recently spent time in rehab herself.

Sigmoid Colon Cancer Causes: In any type of cancer, healthy cells tend to multiply indiscriminately. So what are the factors that may trigger excessive growth of cells in the colon? Doctors believe that people suffering from chronic intestinal disorders like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are in the risk zone of sigmoid colon cancer.

Following a diet that is high in fatty foods as well as leading an inactive lifestyle can also increase the risk of malignant tumor growth in the colon. After knowing what causes sigmoid colon cancer, let’s discuss its symptoms. Presence of cancerous growth in the sigmoid colon does not mean that the symptoms will appear immediately.

Sigmoid colon cancer, as with other types of colorectal cancer, often has few, if any, sigmoid colon cancer symptoms in sigmoid colon cancer early stages. So an absence of sigmoid colon cancer symptoms is no indication that cancer is not present.

However, possible symptoms of this sigmoid colon cancer include blood in the stool, diarrhea, a bowel obstruction, narrow stools and unexplained anemia and/or weight loss. Because sigmoid colon cancer is often asymptomatic, particularly during its early stages, it is important to schedule regular examinations to ensure that no sigmoid colon cancer problems have developed.

This type of examination is called a sigmoidoscopy, and it is done with a scope that provides the doctor with a close-up look at the linings of the sigmoid colon and rectum. Sigmoid colon cancer is classified by stages, each of which is determined by the size of the tumor involved and the degree to which it has penetrated the affected tissue.

Stage 1 cancer is characterized by one or more small tumors that have not yet penetrated the mucosal layer of the colon’s lining. In stage 2 cancer, the tumors are slightly larger and have penetrated the muscle wall of the sigmoid colon. Stage 3 cancer indicates the presence of even larger malignant growths and the spread of cancerous cells to nearby lymph nodes.

Sigmoid colon cancer surgery is the normal method of treatment for all stages of sigmoid colon cancer. For those who have stage 1 or 2 cancer, sigmoid colon cancer surgery is likely to be the only mode of treatment. If the disease has progressed to stage 3, surgery will need to be followed by radiation and/or chemotherapy to kill or retard the growth of sigmoid colon cancer cells that have spread beyond the colon.

A colon cancer prognosis is based mostly upon the cancer stage. You will be better prepared to fight your cancer the more you understand about colon cancer survivability and how it relates to the stage of your cancer.

There are a number of different ways to prevent colon cancer, or to treat it once it becomes a problem. For example, colon cancer can be treated through colon polyp surgery, but only in certain instances where the colon cancer prognosis is still early enough that the cancer can be fully treated.

Colon cancer prognosis and staging methods

Stage I: Duke’s stage A indicates that the colon cancer has only been able to penetrate the most superficial layers of the mucosa or the bowel wall. The prognosis is still good with a five year survival rate of more than 90 %. Stage I colon cancer clearly has the best colon cancer prognosis.

Stage II: Duke’s stage B indicates that the colon cancer has spread or penetrated into the bowel wall’s muscular layer, reducing the colon cancer prognosis to a five year survival rate of only 75 % to 80 %.

Stage III: Duke’s stage C indicates that the colon cancer has managed to spread into the nearby lymph nodes. This further reduces the survivability based on the colon cancer prognosis.

Stage III of colon cancer indicates the involvement of lymph nodes, and the colon cancer prognosis is often affected by the number of involved lymph nodes. Patients with only 1 to 3 nodes involved have a five year survival rate of approximately 45 % to 55 %, while the survival rate drops to 20 % to 30 % when 4 or more nodes are involved.

Stage IV: Duke’s stage D indicates that the colon cancer has spread or metastasized to other sites, commonly including the lung and the liver. This stage of colon cancer clearly has the worst of all prognoses, though not all stage IV cancers should be considered the same.

A colon cancer prognosis depends on the location of your colon cancer, and also how far it has managed to spread. For obvious reasons, early detection is the key to treating and curing colon cancer tumor before it manages to spread into something more severe.

A few signs of colon cancer include the following:

thin stools

stomach cramps

blood on your poop

unexplained weight loss

feeling tired

feeling like you have to “go” when you don’t

Most often, these symptoms are not due to colon cancer. Other health problems can cause the same colon cancer symptoms. Anyone with these symptoms should see a doctor so that any problem can be diagnosed and treated as early as possible.

Indeed, it is fairly uneasy to detect the signs of colon cancer in men. Because they come obvious only when the cancer has been advanced, and the other reason is that because they are just like the symptoms of other medical problems like Crohn’s disease, for example.

The signs of colon cancer in men are more prevalent slightly compared to those in women. And just for the record, it’s been reported that more than 72,000 men affected with this colon cancer, while the number in women is 69,000. So, be adviced about the signs of colon cancer.

Like in women, constipation is the early signs colon cancer in men. The cause of this signs of colon cancer is because the cancer obstructs the passage of waste and bile. You should also go to your doctor immediately if you experience hard bowel movement, also if you experience any change in your bowel habits like going more frequently or maybe less frequently, because both of them can be the signs of colon cancer.

The cancer can also cause your stool become narrower than the usual one as you were in healthy condition without the cancer. The reason for this is because there will be less space for your stool to get pass. This may also make you feel that your bowel make an incomplete movement.

So, this is one of the signs of colon cancer in men. This one of signs of colon cancer in men can be caused by many reasons. In the case colon cancer, the cause is constipation that is related to the cancer that is resulted from the effect of the tumor pushing your bowel’s wall.

By this, you may feel also consistent pain in your symptoms of stomach cancer. Appetite loss, jaundice – yellowing around your eyes –, frequent bowel movement, fatigue, and anemia are the other signs of colon cancer you should aware.

So, if you experience any of the mentioned signs of colon cancer in men, go see your doctor immediately. Usually, early colon cancer does not cause pain. That is why it is important to know the possible signs of colon cancer and symptoms of colon cancer. It is important not to wait to feel pain before seeing a doctor.

Colon Cancer stages 0

This is the earliest colon cancer stages possible and is also called carcinoma in situ. “Carcinoma” refers to cancer that starts in epithelial tissue and “in situ” means original position or place. Colon cancer is considered stage 0 when it hasn’t moved from where it started; it’s still restricted to the innermost lining of the colon.

Colon Cancer stages 1

In this stage, cancer has extended beyond the innermost layer of the colon into the middle layers of the colon. Colon cancer stages 1 used to be called Duke’s A colon cancer.

Colon Cancer stages 2

This used to be called Duke’s B colon cancer. Colon cancer is considered colon cancer stages 2 after it moves beyond the middle layers of the colon. Sometimes colon cancer is still considered stage 2 after it has extended into nearby organs.

Colon Cancer stages 3

If colon cancer is found in at least three lymph nodes, it has reached stage 3 (formerly called Duke’s C colon cancer).

Colon Cancer stages 4

Formerly referred to as Duke’s D colon cancer, colon cancer stages 4 is the most advanced colon cancer stages. In general, colon cancer last stage, stage 4, colon cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes and other parts of the body. Common destinations include the liver and the lungs.

Generally, a stage 1 cancer is one in which the tumor is confined to the bowel wall, similar to a Dukes A lesion. A stage 2 cancer is one in which the cancer has grown beyond the muscular layer of the bowel wall similar to a Dukes B lesion. A stage 3 colon cancer is one in which there has been spread to lymph nodes which would generally correlate with a Dukes C cancer.

A stage 4 colon cancer is one in which there is spread to distant organs. Colon cancer stages are useful in predicting the probability of the cancer recurring after surgical removal. It also helps in determining whether chemotherapy may be helpful in preventing or decreasing the likelihood of a cancer recurrence.

Stage 1 cancers have a survival rate of 80-95 percent. Stage 2 tumors have survival rates ranging from 55 to 80 percent. A stage 3 cancer life expectacy colon cancer has about a 40 percent chance of cure and a patient with a stage 4 tumor has only a 10 percent chance of a cure.

Chemotherapy is used after surgery in many colon cancers stages which are stage 2, 3, and 4 as it has been shown that it increases the survival rates. This is not the case in stage I cancers, and therefore chemotherapy is rarely used in this setting. The vast majority of colon cancer stages 1are cured with surgery alone.