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Patients at risk for developing colon cancer are patients who obviously have a family history of colon cancer. They specifically need to be vigilant about the risk of colon cancer. In addition, as we age, the risk of colon cancer goes up. So that's the reason for doing screening colonoscopies starting at age 50 and beyond, and possibly even earlier for some people. Also, the diet can have an effect on the risk of colon cancer, specifically high fat and high animal protein diets.
Patients at risk for developing colon cancer are patients who obviously have a family history of colon cancer. They specifically need to be vigilant about the risk of colon cancer. In addition, as we age, the risk of colon cancer goes up. So that's the reason for doing screening colonoscopies starting at age 50 and beyond, and possibly even earlier for some people. Also, the diet can have an effect on the risk of colon cancer, specifically high fat and high animal protein diets.
Some of the signs and symptoms of colon cancer include abdominal pain, nausea, weight loss, a change in the stool caliber, or rectal bleeding. Rectal bleeding doesn't always have to be thought of as a sign of colon cancer. It can also be due to hemorrhoids or some other causes, but if there is ever any rectal bleeding, it should always be investigated in order to rule out an underlying colon cancer.
The causes of colon cancer include some genetic factors or hereditary causes. I know there are families who are more prone to getting colonic polyps and therefore getting colon cancer. In addition, we know that obesity or a sedentary lifestyle, as well as some dietary factors such as a high protein or high fat diet, can also cause a high incidence of colon cancer. Many studies have shown that high fat and high animal protein diets can lead to higher incidents of colon cancer. The exact reason for this is not clear, but we know that people who have a high high dietary intake of fat and protein from animal protein do have a higher incidence of colon cancer, overall.
Regarding prevention of colon cancer, studies have shown that patients who are physically active or exercise regularly have a lower risk of developing colon cancer. In addition, we do believe that diet also has a role in preventing colon cancer, specifically with low fat and low animal protein diet with more fruits and vegetables and a high fiber diet can also be protective. Lastly, an aspirin a day can also help protect against the developing colon cancer, in addition to supplements of calcium and vitamin D on a daily basis can also be protective.
Colon cancer survival really depends on the stage of the colon cancer and how early we find the cancer. Obviously, the earlier the stage, the better the survival. For example, for stage one colon cancer patients, surgery alone can be curative in most patients over 90%. With stage two disease, again we have very high cure rates with surgery alone and sometimes we do offer some chemotherapy afterwards depending on what we find on pathology. For stage three patients, we always offer chemotherapy after surgery and we can raise the cure rates from about 50 to 60% with surgery alone, up to about 80, 85% with surgery combined with some form of chemotherapy after surgery. Stage four patients - we don't really discuss cure because it's hard to cure a patient with stage four cancer. Sometimes, we shoot for that, but again, often, all we can do to stabilize patients and keep them in remission. When I was in training, survival for stage four patients was about six to nine months life expectancy. These days, we talk about a few years life expectancy because of all of the nutritional options that you have available. I've seen patients that have survived four or five years or even longer and some have gone into remission for many years.
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