I have a relative who was diagnosed with
colon cancer (could be stage 4). She had
surgery and then six weeks later she
started chemotherapy. Eight weeks after
the surgery she went back to surgery to
reverse the colostomy. During this
procedure the doctor found that there was
more cancer in the colon, so he removed an
additional section of the colon. Is it
possible that the cancer came back or
spread because they did not start her on
chemotherapy right away? Isn’t six weeks
too long or is it standard?
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DoctorAnswer
Doctor Answer
Joined: 19 Dec 2005 Posts: 16777211
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Colon Cancer Answer A214 Posted: 01-26-06 15:47pm
During Stage IV colon cancer, the cancer
is so spread through a host that both
surgery and chemotherapy are unable to
cure the disease (palliative therapy).
They can only slow down the process for a
little while and enable colon passage and
feces elimination (colon-stoma). It sounds
as if the cancer didn’t make a return to
the affected area but that it was already
present. In my opinion, I don’t think
that starting with chemotherapy earlier
than 6 weeks could have made the prognosis
better.
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