My Dad Has Colon Cancer...?

Hello... My dad was just diagnosed with colon cancer... I don't know to much about it... I was just wondering if anyone can tell us what were in for... He starts Chemo and Radiation on Monday...

Now my Grandma... My Dad's mom to be exact... Just passed from colon cancer last year... When they operated they made it worse... The nurse said it was like puting gas on a fire... It made it spread everywhere... Can that happen again?....

Are there things... even just little things... We can do to help him... And whats going to happen as far as side effects... Any info would be appreciated if you have been with anyone that has gone through this before and maybe you have survived cancer... Thank you so much for anything you can tell me...

I am a 41 year old female who was diagnosed with stage IV (advanced) colon cancer in Jan 2006. It had spread to the liver, and I was told that I could not have the tumours in the liver removed, due to the number of tumours present. I had surgery to remove 5/6ths of my colon, and did chemo (FOLFOX and Avastin). After 16 rounds of chemo I sought out a liver surgeon who was doing aggressive liver surgery on younger patients. I am now booked for my liver resection Jan 29, 2007 - one year and 4 days after the surgery to remove my colon. Colon cancer treatments have come a long way in the past 4 years. Prior to the the same drug 5FU was used for the past 40+ years. I document my journey through colon cancer in my blog on my website www.wendysbattle.com. I have included a lot of information that I have found useful in my treatment. I did not have radiation so I can not help you with that. The chemo was very tolerable, just tiring.
You need to be screened, earlier the better - as you are at a higher risk at developing cc yourself. Early detection is important for successful treatment and curability.

Please feel free to email me if you have any other questions.

I'll PRAY for your dads recovery, best I can do to help.
Colorectal cancer, also called colon cancer or bowel cancer, includes cancerous growths in the colon, rectum and appendix. It is the third most common form of cancer and the second leading cause of death among cancers in the Western world. Many colorectal cancers are thought to arise from adenomatous polyps in the colon. These mushroom-like growths are usually benign, but some may develop into cancer over time. The majority of the time, the diagnosis of localized colon cancer is through colonoscopy. Therapy is usually through surgery, which in many cases is followed by chemotherapy.

Treatment
The treatment depends on the staging of the cancer. When colorectal cancer is caught at early stages (with little spread) it can be curable. However when it is detected at later stages (when distant metastases are present) it is less likely to be curable.

Surgery remains the primary treatment while chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy may be recommended depending on the individual patient's staging and other medical factors.

Surgery
Surgeries can be categorised into curative, palliative, bypass, fecal diversion, or open-and-close.

Curative Surgical treatment can be offered if the tumor is localized.

Very early cancer that develops within a polyp can often be cured by removing the polyp (i.e., polypectomy) at the time of colonoscopy.
In colon cancer, a more advanced tumor typically requires surgical removal of the section of colon containing the tumor with sufficient margins, and radical en-bloc resection of mesentery and lymph nodes to reduce local recurrence (i.e., colectomy). If possible, the remaining parts of colon are anastomosed together to create a functioning colon. In cases when anastomosis is not possible, a stoma (artificial orifice) is created.
Curative surgery on rectal cancer includes total mesorectal excision (anterior resection) or abdominoperineal excision.
In case of multiple mestatasis, palliative resection of the primary tumour is still offered in order to reduce further morbidity caused by tumor bleeding, invasion, and its catabolic effect. Surgical removal of isolated liver metastases is, however, common; improved chemotherapy has increased the number of patients who are offered surgical removal of isolated liver metastases.

If the tumor invaded into adjacent vital structures which makes excision technically difficult, the surgeons may prefer to bypass the tumor (ileotransverse bypass) or to do a proximal fecal diversion through a stoma.

The worst case would be an open-and-close surgery, when surgeons find the tumor unresectable and the small bowel involved; any more procedures would do more harm than good to the patient.

Laparoscopic-assisted colectomy is a minimally-invasive technique that can reduce the size of the incision, minimize the risk of infection, and reduce post-operative pain.

As with any surgical procedure, colorectal surgery may result in complications including

wound infection
anastomosis breakdown, leading to abscess or fistula formation, and/or peritonitis
bleeding with or without hematoma formation
adhesions resulting in bowel obstruction (especially small bowel)
blind loop syndrome as in bypass surgery.
adjacent organ injury; most commonly to the small intestine, ureters, spleen, or bladder

Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is used to reduce the likelihood of metastasis developing, shrink tumor size, or slow tumor growth. Chemotherapy is often applied after surgery (adjuvant), before surgery (neo-adjuvant), or as the primary therapy if surgery is not indicated (palliative). The treatments listed here have been shown in clinical trials to improve survival and/or reduce mortality rate and have been approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Adjuvant (after surgery) chemotherapy. One regimen involves the combination of infusional 5-fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX)
5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or Capecitabine (Xeloda庐)
Leucovorin (LV, Folinic Acid)
Oxaliplatin (Eloxatin庐)
Chemotherapy for metastatic disease. Commonly used first line chemotherapy regimens involve the combination of infusional 5-fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) with bevacizumab or infusional 5-fluorouracil, leucovorin, and irinotecan (FOLFIRI) with bevacizumab
5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or Capecitabine
Leucovorin (LV, Folinic Acid)
Irinotecan (Camptosar庐)
Oxaliplatin (Eloxatin庐)
Bevacizumab (Avastin庐)
Cetuximab (Erbitux庐)
In clinical trials for treated/untreated metastatic disease. [4]
Bortezomib (Velcade庐)
Panitumumab (Vectibix)
Oblimersen (Genasense庐, G3139)
Gefitinib and Erlotinib (Tarceva庐)
Topotecan (Hycamtin庐)

Radiation therapy
Radiotherapy is not used routinely in colorectal cancer, as it could lead to radiation enteritis, and is difficult to target specific portions of the colon. Indications included:

Colon cancer
pain relief and palliation - targeted at metastatic tumor deposits if they compress vital structures and/or cause pain.
Rectal cancer
neoadjuvant - downgrade the tumor to increase resectability
adjuvant - where a tumor perforates the colon as judged by the surgeon or the pathologist (Dukes C tumour), guided by surgical clips
palliative - kill tumor tissue when surgery is not indicated
Sometimes chemotherapy agents are used to increase the effectiveness of radiation by sensitizing tumor cells if present.

Immunotherapy
Bacillus Calmette-Gu茅rin (BCG) is being investigated as an adjuvant mixed with autologous tumor cells in immunotherapy for colorectal cancer.[18]

Vaccine
In November 2006, it was announced that a vaccine had been developed and tested with very promising results.(See [5]) The new vaccine, called TroVax, works in a totally different way to existing treatments by harnessing the patient's own immune system to fight the disease. Experts say this suggests that gene therapy vaccines could prove an effective treatment for a whole range of cancers. Oxford BioMedica[6] is the company behind the vaccine; it's a British company established as a spin-out from Oxford University and specialises in the development of gene-based treatments. Further vaccine trials are underway.

Support therapies
Cancer diagnosis very often results in an enormous change in the patient's psychological wellbeing. Various support resources are available from hospitals and other agencies which provide counseling, social service support, cancer support groups, and other services. These services help to mitigate some of the difficulties of integrating a patient's medical complications into other parts of their life.

Prognosis
Survival is directly related to detection and the type of cancer involved. Survival rates for early stage detection is about 5 times that of late stage cancers. CEA level is also directly related to the prognosis of disease, since its level correlates with the bulk of tumor tissue.

Follow-up
Follow-up aims at diagnosing metachronise lesion(s) or distant metastasis in the early stage. History taking and physical examination every 3 to 6 months for three years after surgery. CEA every 2 to 3 months for two or more years in patients who have had resection of liver metastasis. Colonoscopy looking for synchronise lesion(s) should be done shortly after surgery if preoperatively the scope cannot pass through the tumor; otherwise it should be done every 3 to 5 years. ASCO recommends against other routine follow-up tests such as Chest X-Ray, Ultrasound, CT, etc.

Most colorectal cancers should be preventable, through increased surveillance, improved lifestyle, and, probably, the use of dietary chemopreventive agents.
Well my dear,as far as I know there are many different types of colon cancer.The seriousness of the disease depends on the location and above all on the histological result.I just can recommend looking for a good oncologist who will be able to plan the best treatment for your dad.

Best of luck and I wish your dad to be fine soon.
me too, i will pray, but as far as the chemo and stuff goes hes just going to feel REALLY REALLY sick and absolutly horrible, and maybe want to give up because the chemo makes him feel that way, just tell him that its only the chemo, and that he is doing this to fight for his life and family, all you can really do is reassure him again and again.... and yes someties operations can make things worse, but sometimes they can make it better its really 50/50, so no help there. but also remember this.... if your dad were to pass for any reason.. just know that its his time to go, and there was nothing you could do about it.. all the money or surgeries in the world wouldnt have saved him if he was meant to die,, and there is a reason for it... and you WILL be reunited one day, think of it as a vacation or a parting for a long time, or until its your time. just dont be sad, you will be together again . but i willpray and hopefully they caught everything in time and he will be as good as new in the next year... good luck.. 鈾?
Immediately call your doctor and ask if MONOCLONAL TREATMENTS are possible. My father had colon cancer back in 1ht late 70's, had monoclonal treatments and is cancer free. He never had radiation or chemotherapy. In simplistic terms they take a vile of blood, grow antibodies against the colon cancer cells and re inject it back into the patient. They had operated on my father and could not get all the cancer because it was to close to the heart. It completly dissappeared in about a year.
hi i don`t know much about colon cancer don`t know your dad shouldn`t eat any faty food . the thing about your grandma is very sad 2 hear but it could happen again 2 your da if he starts 2 do stuff after the operation sorry 2 hear about your dad