Colon Cancer Screening and Medical Malpractice4959367

Colon cancer is the second major lead to of deaths resulting from cancer. Every single year, approximately 48,000 individuals will die in the U.S. from colon cancer. Several of these deaths would be prevented with early detection and treatment via routine colon cancer screening.

Colon Cancer Progresses Through Stages

The stage of the colon cancer determines the suitable remedy and determines the patient's relative 5-year survival price which is the percentage of colon cancer patients who live at least 5 years after being diagnosed. Colon cancer progresses in stages as follows:

Stage : The illness starts as a tiny non-cancerous growth, named a polyp, in the colon. Some of these polyps turn into precancerous, and more than time, turn cancerous. Development has not progressed beyond the inner layer (mucosa) of the colon.

Stage 1: The cancer has started to operate its way by means of the first layers of the colon - the mucosa and the submucosa.

Stage 2: The cancer has sophisticated beyond the first two layers of the colon and is spreading deeper via 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 (usually the liver or the lungs).

Screening for Colon Cancer

In order to detect colon cancer early, absolutely everyone, even folks who are not at high threat, that is, with no symptoms and with no family members history of colon cancer, need to be screened. Cancer specialists suggest that screening for such individuals commence at age 50 and consist of tests that detect colon cancer in the physique:

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

These tests permit a physician to really see the growth or cancer inside the colon. The frequency at which these tests are repeated depends on what is identified throughout the process.

Cancer specialists also suggest tests that appear for blood in the stool, such as:

Annual Guaiac-primarily based Fecal Occult Blood Test (gFOBT)

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

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

If the disease is detected as a small polyp throughout a routine screening test, such as a colonoscopy, the polyp can usually be taken out in the course of the colonoscopy with out the require for the surgical removal of any of the colon.

colon cancer symptoms

When the polyp becomes a tumor and reaches Stage 1 or Stage 2, the tumor and a portion of the colon on both 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 enough and the patient also requirements to undergo chemotherapy. The relative 5-year survival rate drops to 53%, depending on such aspects as the number of lymph nodes that include cancer.

By the time the colon cancer reaches Stage 4, treatment may possibly demand the use of chemotherapy and other drugs and surgery on numerous organs. If the size and quantity of tumors in other organs (such as the liver and lungs) are small enough, surgery may possibly be the initial remedy, followed by chemotherapy. In some instances the size or number of tumors in the other organs requires away the option of surgery as the initial therapy. If chemotherapy and other drugs can lessen the quantity and size of these tumors, surgery might then grow to be an alternative as the second kind of treatment. If not, chemotherapy and other drugs (possibly through clinical trials) may possibly temporarily quit or reduce the continued spread of the cancer. The relative 5-year survival rate drops to about 8%.

As the relative 5-year survival prices indicate, the time frame in which colon cancer is detected and treated makes a dramatic distinction. If detected and treated early, the person has an outstanding likelihood of surviving the illness. As detection and treatment is delayed, the odds begin 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 Healthcare Malpractice

Regrettably, all as well often medical doctors do not advise routine colon cancer screening to their sufferers. By the time the cancer is found - typically due to the fact the tumor has grown so huge that it is causing blockage, since the patient has unexplained anemia that is getting progressively worse, or simply because the patient starts to notice other symptoms - the colon cancer has currently sophisticated to a Stage 3 or even a Stage 4. The individual now faces a much distinct prognosis than if the cancer had been detected early through routine screening. In medical malpractice terms, the individual has suffered a "loss of chance" of a far better recovery. That is to say, since the medical doctor did not advise the individual to undergo routine screening, the cancer is now significantly a lot more sophisticated and the individual has a a lot reduced chance of surviving the cancer. The failure of a medical doctor to advise the individual about screening possibilities for colon cancer could constitute healthcare malpractice.