The standard treatment for colon cancer is surgery. However, preventive (adjuvant) treatment after surgery is extremely important. At this point, the person who will make the preventive treatment decision is the medical oncologist. Body scanning for staging should ideally be done before surgery, but if not, it should be completed post-operatively. In these scans, standard imaging methods are generally used in line with the recommendations of the responsible physician. The pathology report of the surgery is the most important guide for the medical oncologist to make the preventive treatment decision.
IS STAGE IMPORTANT IN COLON CANCER?
In colon cancer, the stage is informative about the course of the disease; It is also the main factor in making the treatment decision to be applied. In stage I colon cancer, follow-up without treatment is sufficient. In stage II colon cancer, preventive chemotherapy may be recommended in a group of patients. In making this decision, some additional pathological examinations (microsatellite instability test) to be performed on the removed surgical material can be guiding. Preventive (adjuvant) chemotherapy is standard in stage III colon cancer. The treatment approach of stage IV colon cancer is more complex and includes smart targeted drugs and surgical interventions (such as metastasectomy) apart from chemotherapy.
