Colon Cancer Screening and Medical Malpractice7608975

Colon cancer is the second top trigger of deaths resulting from cancer. Each year, around 48,000 men and women will die in the U.S. from colon cancer. A lot of of these deaths would be prevented with early detection and remedy via routine colon cancer screening.

Colon Cancer Progresses Through Stages

The stage of the colon cancer determines the acceptable therapy and determines the patient's relative 5-year survival rate which is the percentage of colon cancer sufferers who live at least 5 years following becoming diagnosed. Colon cancer progresses in stages as follows:

Stage : The illness 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 started to work its way by means of the initial 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 a lot more of the nearby lymph nodes.

Stage 4: The cancer has spread to other organs (normally 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 danger, that is, with no symptoms and with no family members history of colon cancer, ought to be screened. Cancer specialists recommend that screening for such people start at age 50 and consist of tests that detect colon cancer in the body:

Colonoscopy, at least each ten years, Sigmoidoscopy, at least each and every 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 let a doctor to in fact see the growth or cancer inside the colon. The frequency at which these tests are repeated depends on what is discovered throughout the process.

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. Usually these tests are not as efficient at detecting colon cancer as these that detect cancer in the body.

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

If the disease is detected as a small polyp for the duration of a routine screening test, such as a colonoscopy, the polyp can generally be taken out during the colonoscopy without having the want 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 price is over 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 needs to undergo chemotherapy. The relative 5-year survival rate drops to 53%, based on such variables as the quantity of lymph nodes that contain cancer.

By the time the colon cancer reaches Stage 4, treatment could require the use of chemotherapy and other drugs and surgery on multiple organs. If the size and quantity of tumors in other organs (such as the liver and lungs) are modest sufficient, surgery could be the initial treatment, followed by chemotherapy. In some situations the size or quantity of tumors in the other organs requires 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 possibly then become an selection as the second type of therapy. If not, chemotherapy and other drugs (possibly by way of clinical trials) may possibly temporarily quit or minimize the continued spread of the cancer. The relative 5-year survival price drops to around 8%.

As the relative 5-year survival prices indicate, the time frame in which colon cancer is detected and treated tends to make a dramatic distinction. If detected and treated early, the person has an superb opportunity of surviving the disease. As detection and treatment is delayed, the odds start off turning against the person so that by the time the colon cancer progresses to Stage 3, the percentage is virtually even. And the odds drop precipitously when the colon cancer reaches Stage 4.

Failure to Screen for Colon Cancer Might Constitute Medical Malpractice

Unfortunately, all as well usually physicians do not advocate routine colon cancer screening to their individuals. 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 already sophisticated to a Stage 3 or even a Stage 4. The person now faces a a lot various prognosis than if the cancer had been detected early via routine screening. In medical malpractice terms, the person has suffered a "loss of chance" of a much better recovery. That is to say, because the medical professional did not advise the individual to undergo routine screening, the cancer is now a lot a lot more sophisticated and the individual has a much decreased opportunity of surviving the cancer. The failure of a physician to advise the individual about screening choices for colon cancer might constitute health-related malpractice.