Colorectal cancer is just as common among women as men. An estimated 148,610 new cases will be diagnosed in 2006 in the United States. Of these new cancer cases, 106,680 will be colon cancer and 41,930 rectal cancer. And an estimated 55,170 will die of the disease in 2006, making it the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States.
In many cases colon cancer can be prevented. Colon cancer almost always starts with a small growth called a polyp. If the polyp is found early, doctors can remove it and stop colon cancer before it starts.
African-American men and women are diagnosed with and die from colon cancer at higher rates than men and women of any other US racial or ethnic group.
More than 90% of colon cancer cases occur in people age 50 and older. For this reason, the American Cancer Society recommends you start getting tested for the disease at age 50. People who are at increased risk for colon cancer -- for example, those with a family history of the disease -- may need to begin testing at a younger age. You should talk to your doctor about your specific situation and when you should begin getting tested.
Colon cancer is often highly treatable. If colon cancer is found early and treated, the 5-year survival rate is 90%. But because many people are not getting tested, only 39% of cases are diagnosed at this early stage when treatment is so successful.
Cancer of the colon is the disease characterized by the development of malignant cells in the lining or epithelium of the first and longest portion of the large intestine. Malignant cells have lost normal control mechanisms governing growth. These cells may invade surrounding local tissue or they may spread throughout the body and invade other organ systems.
Synonyms for the colon include the large bowel or the large intestine. The rectum is the continuation of the large intestine into the pelvis that terminates in the anus.
The colon is a tubular organ beginning in the right lower aspect of the abdomen. Anatomically, it ascends on the right side of the abdomen, traverses from right to left in the upper abdomen, descends vertically down the left side, takes an S-shaped curve in the lower left abdomen, and then flows into the rectum as it leaves the abdomen for the pelvis. These portions of the colon are named separately though they are part of the same organ.
• cecum, the beginning of the colon
• ascending colon, the right vertical ascent of the colon
• transverse colon, the portion traversing from right to left
• descending colon, the left vertical descent of the colon
• sigmoid colon, the s-shaped segment of colon above the pelvis
These portions of the colon are recognized anatomically based on the arterial blood supply and venous and lymphatic drainage of these segments of the colon. Lymph, a protein-rich fluid that bathes the cells of the body, is transported in small channels known as lymphatics that run alongside the veins of the colon. Lymph nodes are small filters through which the lymph travels on its way back to the blood stream. Cancer can spread elsewhere in the body by invading the lymph and vascular systems. Therefore, these anatomic considerations become very important in the treatment of colon cancer.
The small intestine is the continuation of the upper gastrointestinal tract responsible for the transport of ingested nutrients into the body. The waste left after the small intestine has completed absorption of nutrients amounts to a few liters, (about the same as quart), of material per day and is directly delivered to the colon, (at the cecum), for processing. Physiologically, the colon is responsible for the preservation of fluid and electrolytes as it propels the increasingly solid waste towards the rectum and anus for excretion.When cells lining the colon become malignant, they first grow locally and may invade partially or totally through the wall of the bowel and even into adjacent structures and organs. In the process, the tumor can penetrate and invade the lymphatics or the capillaries locally and it gains access to the circulation. As the malignant cells work their way to other areas of the body, they again become locally invasive in the new area to which they have spread. These tumor deposits, originating from the colon primary tumor, are then known as metastases. If metastases are found in the regional lymph nodes from the primary, they are known as regional metastases, or regional nodal metastases. If they are distant from the primary tumor, they are known as distant metastases. The patient with distant metastases has systemic disease. Thus the cancer originating in the colon begins locally and, given time, can become systemic in its extent.
By the time the primary tumor is originally detected it is usually larger than one cm, (about 3/8 inches), in size and has over a million cells. This amount of growth itself is estimated to take about three-seven years. Each time the cells double in number, the size of the tumor quadruples. Thus like most cancers, the part that is identified clinically is later in the progression than would be desired and screening becomes a very important endeavor to aid in earlier detection of this disease.
DO NOT USE COLON HYDROTHERAPY FOR TREATING COLON CANCER UNLESS SPECIFICALLY INSTRUCTED TO DO SO BY A LICENSED PHYSICIAN
