Colon Cancer Screening and Health-related Malpractice2876997

Colon cancer is the second leading cause of deaths resulting from cancer. Each year, approximately 48,000 men and women 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 treatment and determines the patient's relative 5-year survival price which is the percentage of colon cancer sufferers who reside at least 5 years soon after getting diagnosed. Colon cancer progresses in stages as follows:

Stage : The illness begins as a small non-cancerous development, named a polyp, in the colon. Some of these polyps turn out to be 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 function its way by way of the first layers of the colon - the mucosa and the submucosa.

Stage 2: The cancer has advanced beyond the first 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 much more of the nearby lymph nodes.

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

Screening for Colon Cancer

In order to detect colon cancer early, everyone, even men and women who are not at high risk, that is, with no symptoms and with no loved ones history of colon cancer, need 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 body:

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

These tests allow a medical professional to truly see the development or cancer inside the colon. The frequency at which these tests are repeated depends on what is found throughout the procedure.

Cancer specialists also recommend 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. Usually these tests are not as effective at detecting colon cancer as those that detect cancer in the physique.

Stage of Colon Cancer Determines Therapies and Relative 5-Year Survival Rates

If the illness is detected as a modest polyp in the course of a routine screening test, such as a colonoscopy, the polyp can generally be taken out for the duration of the colonoscopy without having the need to have for the surgical removal of any of the colon.

what is 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 over 90% for Stage 1 and 73% for Stage 2.

If the illness advances to a Stage 3, a colon resection is no longer sufficient and the patient also needs to undergo chemotherapy. The relative 5-year survival rate drops to 53%, based on such factors as the quantity of lymph nodes that contain cancer.

By the time the colon cancer reaches Stage 4, remedy could need the use of chemotherapy and other drugs and surgery on multiple organs. If the size and number of tumors in other organs (such as the liver and lungs) are modest sufficient, surgery may be the initial remedy, followed by chemotherapy. In some instances the size or number of tumors in the other organs takes away the alternative of surgery as the initial remedy. If chemotherapy and other drugs can reduce the number and size of these tumors, surgery may then grow to be an choice as the second type of remedy. If not, chemotherapy and other drugs (possibly by way of clinical trials) could temporarily stop or reduce the continued spread of the cancer. The relative 5-year survival price drops to roughly 8%.

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 individual has an excellent likelihood of surviving the disease. As detection and therapy is delayed, the odds begin turning against the individual so that by the time the colon cancer progresses to Stage 3, the percentage is almost even. And the odds drop precipitously when the colon cancer reaches Stage 4.

Failure to Screen for Colon Cancer May possibly Constitute Healthcare Malpractice

Regrettably, all also frequently physicians do not recommend routine colon cancer screening to their sufferers. By the time the cancer is discovered - often due to the fact the tumor has grown so large that it is causing blockage, because the patient has unexplained anemia that is receiving progressively worse, or simply because the patient begins 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 various prognosis than if the cancer had been detected early by means of routine screening. In health-related malpractice terms, the person has suffered a "loss of chance" of a greater recovery. That is to say, because the physician did not advise the individual to undergo routine screening, the cancer is now considerably much more sophisticated and the person has a considerably decreased opportunity of surviving the cancer. The failure of a medical professional to advise the individual about screening options for colon cancer might constitute health-related malpractice.