The most common screening for colon cancer is a colonoscopy, though blood tests are often used, as well. However, blood tests cannot tell if you have cancer, but they can be used to get clues about your health. A colonoscopy uses long, slender, and flexible tubes, as well as a video camera, to monitor your rectum and colon. If anything suspicious is noticed, surgical tools can be put through the tube to take samples. Colon cancer treatment in Dallas TX may use a colonoscopy, but you can also find many other treatments, as well.
Determining the Stage
Before treatments are administered, your doctor is going to determine the stage of your colon cancer. There are four stages, with the first being the easiest to treat. While there is always hope, it does diminish as you move through each of the stages, with stage four being the hardest to treat.
Treatments
The treatment your doctor recommends is going to be dependent on the stage of cancer. Earlier stages mean that the cancer is small and you may be able to use less invasive approaches, such as removing polyps that are cancerous or precancerous, minimally-invasive surgery, such as laparoscopic surgery, and endoscopic mucosal resection, which means that larger polyps are removed, as well as the rectum or colon sections.
If that isn’t enough, your doctor is likely to recommend surgery, which can include partial colectomy and surgery that allows waste to leave the body when it can’t do so through the colon and rectum. Another surgical procedure includes lymph node removal to test them for cancer.
If these don’t work or your doctor wants to try something other than surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy can also be used. Sometimes, you may have multiple treatments at the same time. For more information visit
