Colon cancer is the second leading cause of death consequences resulting from cancer. Each year, approximately 48,000 people will die in the US from colon cancer. Many of these deaths could be prevented with early detection and treatment through routine colon cancer screening. You can get more information about genetic testing for rectal & colon cancer via online sources.
Colon Cancer Progress Through Stages
Stage of colon cancer determines the appropriate treatment and determines the relative 5-year survival rate is the percentage of patients whose colon cancer patients who live at least 5 years after diagnosis. Colon cancer develops in stages as follows:
Stage 0: The disease starts as a small non-cancerous growth, called polyps, in the colon. Some of these polyps become precancerous, and over time, turn into cancer. Growth has not shown progress in the lining (mucosa) of the colon.
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Stage 1: Cancer has started to work its way through the first layer of the colon – the mucosa and submucosa.
Stage 2: Cancer has advanced beyond the first two layers of the colon and spreads deeper through the intestinal lining into the muscular and serous but not in the lymph nodes or distant organs.
Stage 3: Cancer has developed to one or more nearby lymph nodes.
Stage 4: Cancer has expanded to other organs (typically the liver or lungs).
Screening for Colon Cancer
In order to detect colon cancer early, everyone, even people who are not at high risk, that is, with no symptoms and no family history of colon cancer, should be screened. Cancer specialists suggest that screening for such individuals ranging from age 50 and consist of tests that detect colon cancer in the body