Introduction
Colon cancer is one of the most common cancers in adults today. In the technical terminology it is called “colorectal carcinoma”. The technical term already includes the two localisations of the cancer in the colon or rectum.
As a rule, colorectal cancer can be easily treated and in many cases cured by surgery and possibly chemotherapy. However, the most important influence on the prognosis and life expectancy of the affected person is early detection and the stage of the disease. This provides an indicator of how large the cancer has grown and how widespread it has already spread away from the bowel in the rest of the body.
These metastases are the biggest factor in life expectancy. The final stage of a colon cancer is defined by the fact that such metastases are already present in other areas and organs of the body. Even in the final stage, stage 4 of colorectal cancer, therapies with the aim of a cure can still be sought, but the prognosis of the disease is greatly reduced by the presence of metastases.
Symptoms of the final stage
In many cases, colorectal cancer does not cause symptoms until the high stage of the disease. This represents a risk factor, as early therapies and high chances of cure are often denied. Potential symptoms can be caused by the original tumour in the intestine or by its metastases in certain organs.
Bowel irregularities, constipation, blood in the stool, pain during bowel movement and diffuse abdominal pain can often be detected. Enormously large tumours can even cause intestinal obstruction, a dangerous complication that is accompanied by severe cramping abdominal pain. Apart from the intestinal tumour, in rare cases small metastases in the liver can lead to upper abdominal pain or yellowing of the skin. In more advanced cases, restrictions in lung function, bone pain and the so-called “B-symptoms” are also typical. The latter includes symptoms such as fatigue, fever, weight loss and night sweats as general physical reactions to colon cancer.
The course of terminal colon cancer is
Bowel cancer often develops slowly and over years. Even many years before, slow-growing precursors can develop, which do not always develop into a cancer. The first conspicuous features can be polyps in the intestinal wall, which can be detected early, removed and examined, for example during a colonoscopy.
From these small growths, cells can mutate, which in the long term form a malignant carcinoma. This can grow slowly and grow from the intestinal mucosa into the other layers of the intestinal wall. Symptoms often appear late, when the cancer is already so large that the digestion and passage of food in the bowel is already blocked.
Through growth into the outer layers of the intestinal wall, the first cells can enter the lymphatic and blood circulation. At this stage the therapy is already severely hampered, as invisible, small metastases can already develop all over the body. According to the definition, the final stage is only reached when visible metastases are diagnosed in organs far from the intestine. If left untreated, all organs can then be affected by the cancer cells. The exact course of the disease cannot be predicted, but in the case of colorectal cancer the first metastases often form, particularly in the liver and lungs.
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