Colon Cancer Screening and Healthcare Malpractice2598337

Colon cancer is the second major result in of deaths resulting from cancer. Every year, approximately 48,000 folks will die in the U.S. from colon cancer. Many of these deaths would be prevented with early detection and therapy through 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 rate which is the percentage of colon cancer sufferers who reside at least 5 years following being diagnosed. Colon cancer progresses in stages as follows:

Stage : The disease starts as a tiny non-cancerous development, named a polyp, in the colon. Some of these polyps grow to be precancerous, and more than 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 first layers of the colon - the mucosa and the submucosa.

Stage 2: The cancer has advanced beyond the initial 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 one particular 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 threat, that is, with no symptoms and with no family history of colon cancer, must be screened. Cancer specialists recommend that screening for such people begin at age 50 and consist of tests that detect colon cancer in the physique:

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

These tests allow a medical doctor to actually see the development or cancer inside the colon. The frequency at which these tests are repeated depends on what is identified throughout 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. Generally these tests are not as efficient 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 illness is detected as a modest polyp for the duration of 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 each 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 sufficient 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 contain cancer.

By the time the colon cancer reaches Stage 4, treatment could call for 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 little adequate, surgery may possibly be the initial remedy, followed by chemotherapy. In some circumstances the size or number of tumors in the other organs takes away the option of surgery as the initial remedy. If chemotherapy and other drugs can lessen the quantity and size of these tumors, surgery could then turn into an option as the second kind of treatment. If not, chemotherapy and other drugs (possibly by means of clinical trials) might temporarily stop or minimize the continued spread of the cancer. The relative 5-year survival rate drops to roughly 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 individual has an superb possibility of surviving the disease. As detection and treatment is delayed, the odds start off 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 Might Constitute Healthcare Malpractice

Regrettably, all as well usually physicians do not advise routine colon cancer screening to their patients. By the time the cancer is found - often since the tumor has grown so massive that it is causing blockage, since the patient has unexplained anemia that is getting progressively worse, or since the patient begins to notice other symptoms - the colon cancer has currently advanced to a Stage 3 or even a Stage 4. The person now faces a considerably diverse prognosis than if the cancer had been detected early through routine screening. In health-related malpractice terms, the person has suffered a "loss of chance" of a better recovery. That is to say, due to the fact the doctor did not advise the person to undergo routine screening, the cancer is now a lot much more sophisticated and the person has a much lowered possibility of surviving the cancer. The failure of a physician to advise the person about screening options for colon cancer could constitute healthcare malpractice.