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Cancer is hundreds of different diseases, all with one thing in common - they grow and spread and do not stop until they kill their host. Every cell in the body can become cancerous. Some cancers are extremely rare. Others are among the most common killers of humans. Some are very slow growing and rarely kill anyone. Others are very aggressive and kill nearly everyone they afflict. Colon (or large bowel) cancer is the third most common cancer killer in the United States, killing roughly 50 percent of its 106,000 yearly victims. (Lung cancer tops the list.) Deaths from colorectal cancer have been decreasing thanks to colorectal cancer screening. Screening, early diagnosis and treatment are the keys to surviving colon cancer.
Technically, colon cancer (or colo-rectal cancer) is an adenocarcinoma. It arises from a polyp in the lining of your large intestine. It is graded according to how it looks under a microscope and how far it has spread by the time it is discovered. The grading (stage) helps to determine the patient's chance for cure or for survival if cure is not possible. This, in turn, determines the steps that are taken to treat it. If you have a good chance for cure, aggressive measures, including radical surgery, will be taken in hopes of removing the entire cancer and are successful approximately half the time. If it is discovered too late, more conservative measures will be selected to provide the maximum comfort and greatest length of survival.
This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.
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