Colon Cancer Screening and Medical Malpractice2469298

Colon cancer is the second top trigger of deaths resulting from cancer. Every single year, roughly 48,000 people will die in the U.S. from colon cancer. Numerous of these deaths would be prevented with early detection and treatment by way of routine colon cancer screening.

Colon Cancer Progresses By way of Stages

The stage of the colon cancer determines the suitable therapy and determines the patient's relative 5-year survival rate which is the percentage of colon cancer patients who reside at least 5 years soon after getting diagnosed. Colon cancer progresses in stages as follows:

Stage : The disease starts as a tiny non-cancerous growth, known as a polyp, in the colon. Some of these polyps become precancerous, and over time, turn cancerous. Growth has not progressed beyond the inner layer (mucosa) of the colon.

Stage 1: The cancer has began to work its way via the very first layers of the colon - the mucosa and the submucosa.

Stage 2: The cancer has sophisticated beyond the 1st two layers of the colon and is spreading deeper by means of the wall of the colon into the muscularis and the serosa but is not in the lymph nodes or distant organs.

Stage 3: The cancer has spread to a single or a lot more of the nearby lymph nodes.

Stage 4: The cancer has spread to other organs (generally the liver or the lungs).

Screening for Colon Cancer

In order to detect colon cancer early, everyone, even folks who are not at high threat, that is, with no symptoms and with no household history of colon cancer, ought to be screened. Cancer specialists recommend that screening for such folks start off at age 50 and consist of tests that detect colon cancer in the physique:

Colonoscopy, at least every single ten years, Sigmoidoscopy, at least each and every 5 years, Double-contrast Barium Enema, at least every single 5 years, or Virtual Colonoscopy (computed tomographic colonography), at least every single 5 years

These tests allow a medical professional to really see the growth or cancer inside the colon. The frequency at which these tests are repeated depends on what is located during the procedure.

Cancer specialists also advocate tests that look for blood in the stool, such as:

Annual Guaiac-based Fecal Occult Blood Test (gFOBT)

Such tests detect the presence of blood from tumors in the stool. Normally these tests are not as efficient at detecting colon cancer as those that detect cancer in the physique.

Stage of Colon Cancer Determines Treatment options and Relative 5-Year Survival Prices

If the illness is detected as a tiny polyp for the duration of a routine screening test, such as a colonoscopy, the polyp can typically be taken out throughout the colonoscopy without having the need for the surgical removal of any of the colon.

colon cancer

When the polyp becomes a tumor and reaches Stage 1 or Stage 2, the tumor and a portion of the colon on each sides is surgical removed. The relative 5-year survival rate is more than 90% for Stage 1 and 73% for Stage 2.

If the disease advances to a Stage 3, a colon resection is no longer adequate and the patient also needs to undergo chemotherapy. The relative 5-year survival rate drops to 53%, based on such elements as the number of lymph nodes that include cancer.

By the time the colon cancer reaches Stage 4, therapy might call for the use of chemotherapy and other drugs and surgery on numerous organs. If the size and number of tumors in other organs (such as the liver and lungs) are modest sufficient, surgery might be the initial treatment, followed by chemotherapy. In some circumstances the size or number of tumors in the other organs requires away the option of surgery as the initial remedy. If chemotherapy and other drugs can minimize the number and size of these tumors, surgery may possibly then become an choice as the second type of therapy. If not, chemotherapy and other drugs (possibly via clinical trials) may temporarily cease or lessen the continued spread of the cancer. The relative 5-year survival price drops to around eight%.

As the relative 5-year survival rates indicate, the time frame in which colon cancer is detected and treated makes a dramatic difference. If detected and treated early, the person has an outstanding chance of surviving the disease. As detection and therapy is delayed, the odds commence turning against the individual so that by the time the colon cancer progresses to Stage 3, the percentage is nearly even. And the odds drop precipitously when the colon cancer reaches Stage 4.

Failure to Screen for Colon Cancer Might Constitute Medical Malpractice

However, all also usually physicians do not advise routine colon cancer screening to their individuals. By the time the cancer is discovered - typically since the tumor has grown so huge that it is causing blockage, due to the fact the patient has unexplained anemia that is receiving progressively worse, or due to the fact the patient begins to notice other symptoms - the colon cancer has already advanced to a Stage 3 or even a Stage 4. The individual now faces a a lot various prognosis than if the cancer had been detected early via routine screening. In healthcare malpractice terms, the individual has suffered a "loss of chance" of a far better recovery. That is to say, because the medical professional did not advise the person to undergo routine screening, the cancer is now considerably much more advanced and the person has a a lot lowered chance of surviving the cancer. The failure of a physician to advise the person about screening alternatives for colon cancer could constitute healthcare malpractice.