colorectal cancer stage 3 chemotherapy
the patient sometimes ask me if all of thetreatment is worth it after a diagnosis of colon cancer, so let's take a moment and talkabout what will happen if you don't get treated. although early detection and treatment ofcolon cancer is highly curable, stage iv cancer is almost always lethal. before we have thenewer chemotherapy drugs in the natural course of the disease, we would quote a survivalrate of about to six to eight months for the patients with stage iv disease meaning cancerthat has spread to other organs if it went untreated. for an early stage patient whodoes not get treated meaning the tumor is detected in the colon it might be in the lymphnodes, but not in other organs yet, this time might depending on how aggressive the tumoris be extended to a year or two, but invariably it is important for the patient to know thatit will become lethal. now, colon cancer is a very special case because it is so highlycurable if you treat it early on and the treatment is usually v...