1. A diet plan meant for colon cancer prevention should contain plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits. The vegetables are fruits contain all the essential minerals and vitamins required for normal functioning of our organs. These food types are rich in antioxidants and phytochemcials, which work by preventing cell damage. Phytochemcials are specifically useful in preventing toxic buildup within the colon; they are also known for preventing inflammation and tumor growth. The antioxidants on the other hand prevent damage of healthy cells by attacking the free radicals created while the breakdown of food occurs. The vegetables and fruits that contain maximum amount of antioxidants and phytochemcials are: broccoli, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, citrus fruits and berries. For leading a healthy disease free life one much consume 5 to 9 servings of vegetables and fruits every day.
2. The next most essential part of a colon cancer preventing diet plan I whole grain. As whole grains do not get bleaches, refined or processed in time of preparation, the nutrients and fiber in them stay intact. Intake of adequate amount of fiber ensures that our bowels are cleared regularly. This reduces the risk of colon cancer significantly. Some of the whole grains that can be part of a colon cancer preventing diet are: wheat pasta or breads, oatmeal, brown rice and bran cereals.
3. Food items rich in saturated fats for instance are known to inhibit health bowels. Thus for preventing colon cancer successfully one must stay away from all the food items containing high levels of saturated fats. To do that replace red meat with leaner meats like turkey or chicken and fishes like tuna and salmon.

A slight modification to our everyday diet can help us to remain fit and free from the peril of colon cancer.

Statistics reveal that majority of the individuals diagnosed with colon cancer are elderly; determining how aggressively an elderly colon cancer patient can be treated, particularly after a surgery is an extremely difficult task for the doctors. However, several clinical trials are now suggesting that an elderly individual, who is otherwise fit, react well to treatment methods like adjuvant chemotherapy, when used following a surgery. This shows that only the chronological age of a person should not stop a doctor from opting for aggressive colorectal cancer treatment options. Below we have discussed in brief about the three main colorectal cancer treatment methods i.e. surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Surgery:

Surgical procedures used for treating colorectal cancer can be of 5 types; they are:

• Curative: This method is meant for patients having localized tumor.
• Palliative: Palliative or noncurative surgeries are done for reducing further morbidity resulting from invasion, bleeding and catabolic effects of the tumor.
• Bypass: Colorectal cancers invading the vital adjacent structures are usually treated with a surgical procedure called ileotransverse bypass.
• Fecal diversion: This surgical procedure is also done for removing colorectal tumors invading vital adjacent structures.
• Assisted colectomy through laparoscopy: This procedure is a much less invasive surgical method and thus causes minimum postoperative pain.

Chemotherapy:

Colorectal cancer patients are offered chemotherapy for reducing the chances of spreading or metastasis of the disease, shrinking the size of the tumor or slowing down the growth of the tumor. Chemotherapy can be of three types:

• Palliative: Chemotherapy offered as the primary mode of treatment
• Neoadjuvant: Chemotherapy applied before the surgery
• Adjuvant: Chemotherapy applied after the surgery

Radiotherapy:

Radiotherapy is a rarely used colorectal cancer treatment option. In case colon cancer, radiotherapy is used for offering palliation of metastatic tumors or for offering pain relief. Patients with rectum cancer are treated with radiotherapy, when the cancer spreads beyond the rectum.

Scientists have claimed that being watchful of waistline measurement and halting the abhorrent smoking habit are other vital means of staving one of the leading eradicators in Britain. They made an identification of 5 lifestyle modifications which can curb bowel cancer risk by twenty-three percent and a number of cancer forms.

A trial looking at consumption of alcohols, waistline circumferences, dietetic intake, smoking and exercising appeared in the recent edition of the British Medical Journal. The trial found that people who incorporate merely a single suggestion for healthful lifestyles can lessen their risk for bowel cancer developing by thirteen percent.

In the United Kingdom, Bowel Cancer garners the 3rd slot in the listing for the most widespread form of cancer in the United Kingdom with over 38600 bowel cancer cases identified yearly. It ranks 2nd for being the prevalent reason for cancer-related deaths in the United Kingdom obliterating over 16250 individually on an annual basis.

Scientists from Denmark researched the association in-between adopting the suggestion of healthful way of life & bowel cancer risk among those in middle age.

They researched 55487 people from both genders in the age band of fifty to sixty-four years of age who were not earlier identified with cancer, over nearly a decade till 2006.

Entrants in the trial were requested to fill up a lifestyle survey that included queries regarding their lifestyles, health, social and fecundity factors alongside victual incidence survey devised for assessing regular consumption over a year’s time.

Taking into consideration public health suggestion by the World Cancer Research Fund, WHO & the Nordic Nutrition the scientists developed a healthful lifestyle guide. It entailed engaging in some form of physical activity for no less than thirty minutes on a daily basis, not crossing over 7 drinks in a week’s time for females whereas a limit of fourteen drinks in week’s time in case of males, giving up smoking, waist circumferences being under eighty-eight centimetres or 34.6 inches among females and forty inches or 102 centimetres in case of males & following a healthful dietetic intake.

When these entrants were followed up, diagnosis of 678 cases of bowel cancer were spotted by researchers.

The scientists then computed that in case all the study entrants had been following at least 1 supplementary suggestion then prevention of thirteen percent of bowel cancer cases would have been possible.

In case all the entrants would have adhered to the 5 suggestions then twenty-three percent of the disease cases could easily been averted.

Scientists H. Kirkegaard from the Inst. of Cancer Epidemiology stated that just moderate amendments in lifestyles may have a significant effect on bowel cancer risk.

Prof. M. Wiseman from World Cancer Research Fund stated that it is estimated that around 4 in every 10 colorectal cancer cases in the United Kingdom could be averted in such a manner – working out to approximately fifteen thousand cases on a yearly basis.

In the interim, a novel imaging method can notify females having breast cancer whether their therapy is actually effective weeks sooner as compared to existent techniques.

Alterations in the cancerous cells which reveal medications are working could be charted at a quicker rate employing duo chemical markers, according to a trial by researchers at the Cancer Research UK which appeared in the British Journal of Cancer.

Present strategies solely reveal whether a therapy is effectual in case the tumors start to shrivel however it could take numerous weeks prior to them becoming apparent.

The scientists looked at breast cancer cells in laboratory & rodent models and detected preliminary indications that tumors were showing response to therapy deploying prevalent chemo medication doxorubicin.

For meeting the burgeoning customer demands, scientists in the area of traditional medicine are working to corroborate the efficiency of primordial medications employing Western styled animal tests as well as human scientific studies.

According to a paper printed in ‘Science Translational Medicine’ the investigators stated that the cancer-afflicted rodents were given the Chinese concoct following chemotherapy session employing irinotecan which has established toxic effects on the intestines and causal to loose bowels.

Study researchers pointed out that when cancer-ridden rodents were administered chemotherapy it caused tumor shrinkage however additionally was contributory to substantial damage to the gut lining in animals.

Following just days post-treatment that involved usage of PHY906 medication, there was noteworthy restoration of damage caused to the gut lining among the rodents.

PHY906 is a lab formula which is a 1800 years old Chinese formulation that contains a purplish bloom known as skullcap, peonies, buckthorn tree produce and licorice. Known as Huang Qin Tang, the formulation has since long been deployed for treating puking, queasiness and loose bowels.

Elucidating their study, lead author, Yung-Chi Cheng spoke about how Irinotecan single-handedly diminished tumor development however when it is coalesced with PHY906 it could additionally lower tumor development.

On its own, PHY906 does not lessen tumor development and has to be employed in merger with chemotherapy.

Colorectal cancer garners the third position as the most lethal form of cancer following lung and stomach cancers and causal to 6399000 fatalities worldwide during 2004, as per information provided by the WHO.

As per data furnished by the ACS (American Cancer Society), the monetary burden arising due to colorectal cancer in regards to untimely fatality and disablement is ninety-nine billion dollars yearly, barring direct therapy expenses.

Cheng further added that their research group has since concluded a small-scaled scientific study employing the brew on seventeen colorectal cancer patients. The outcomes of the phase I, II scientific study has shown promise and the investigators would now proceed to large-scaled scientific trial.

Cheng is a stake-owner in the firm PhytoCeutica that is involved in the development of conventional Chinese medicine into cancer therapy drugs and is a PHY906 license-holder.

On the basis of previous trials, cetuximab is presently suggested as therapy among people having later staging colorectal cancer and among whom the tumors did not have presence of a mutation in the KRAS gene.

KRAS belongs to the sequence of genes along a path way which could cause tumor growth and division and elude signs which cause cell shutdown and hence fatality. On the basis of outcomes in later staging of the disease, investigators are hopeful of seeing analogous advantages when the drug was included into benchmark chemotherapy regime in early colon cancer staging. But, in-progress evaluation during the scientific study noted that patients who received the combo treatment did not show any major positive change in outlook in comparison to benchmark treatment.

Cetuximab is an intravenously administered drug for treating colorectal cancer that has metastasized and for head and neck cancer patients. The drug is basically a monoclonal antibody which hampers EGFR or epidermal growth factor receptor (a cell-signalling path way which is contributory to tumor development). Earlier, scientists noted that people having a mutation in the KRAS gene – around forty percent of those patients having metastasized colon cancer failed in responding following treatment with the presently used EGFR inhibitors.

But, the genetic testing for locating mutated KRAS gene was not benchmark till the current study was half way through.

Dr. Richard Goldberg who heads the division of oncology/hematology, UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine made a presentation of the study outcomes conducted on a set of patients registered prior to KRAS testing and were segregated from the others in the trial and assessed individually.

Dr. Goldberg stated that they were anticipating that the study candidates having genetic mutation might not show response to the drug cetuximab, which was what they eventually discovered. He further mentioned that study entrants with tumors not harbouring KRAS mutation failed to be majorly benefited from the combo treatment and the benchmark therapy known to have the most optimal outcomes.

Dr. Goldberg, also working for the N.C. Cancer Hospital stated that the combo treatment had far greater toxicity and side-effects particularly among patients in the elderly bracket and had a negative impact on their capability of completing the benchmark therapy.

The study investigators have put forth recommendations that the drug cetuximab must not be employed for people having colon cancer stage 3. However, cetuximab continues to be an invaluable means for treatment of advanced colorectal cancers where tumors were not harbouring a KRAS mutation. It could be offered as a sole agent or alongside chemotherapy.

The pain-free test could effectively spot bowel cancer symptoms, thus preventing five thousand cases of the condition from advancing and cutting three thousand fatalities annually.

Prof. Wendy Atkin at the Imperial College London who helmed the study stated that this test was the foremost of its kind screening method which has been found to avert bowel cancer.

It is anticipated that the test would be available nationwide in the next 3 years. Though previous identification and medications have diminished disease-related fatalities, there has been no significant alteration in the numbers of bowel cancer cases.

The research has shown for the foremost instant the life-relinquishing advantages of a fast exam employing a sigmoidoscope – a fine pliable tube employed for checking any abnormal growths in the lower portion of the bowel.

Known as the Flexi-Scope test, investigators observed that it helped in cutting the fatality rates for bowel cancer by forty-three percent and lessened the number of bowel cancer cases by one-third.

It functions by identifying and excising small polyp formations, fleshy growths within the bowel which in case not treated could progress to cancer in near future.

The study involved 170432 candidates from both genders on which an eleven year long follow-up was done.

Presently, the screening for bowel cancer symptoms employs a test that checks for blood presence in stool sample and spots cancer in an earlier stage. The test is given in a two-yearly time period for people in their sixties and seventies and reduces fatality rates by twenty-five percent.

The Flexi-Scope test is a pain-free and swift screening method for identifying bowel cancer symptoms by employing a sigmoidoscope – a flexible metal or plastic tube that scans the lower portion of the bowel. The device similar in thickness to a broad pen and could easily bend and curve on insertion via the rectal aperture for close to 6 inches. The sigmoidoscope is affixed with camera-fitted illuminated source for checking any type of abnormality.

The examination is generally performed by a nurse after requesting the patient on lying on their sides after which the tube is introduced. Any type of polyp growths that could progress to cancer is obliterated via laser or snipping off, that could lengthen the 5-minute long test by an additional couple of minutes. One among twenty patients that are categorized as being at elevated risk due to the presence of already present tumor that is growing are treated on another time.

However, specialists’ state that the Flexi-Scope method could truly avert cancer as a blood test would still be required for spotting a number of cancers in areas of the bowel that the Flexi-Scope is incapable of reaching.

The study was conducted in fourteen centers nationally. Approximately, 170000 individuals in the ages of 55-64 years were given the Flexi-Scope Test or allotted to no intervention until they became symptomatic.

Study entrants that were offered the Flexi-Scope test has tiny polyp growths excised or were referred for additional examination wherever needed.

Subsequent to eleven year follow up period, 2524 of them were identified with bowel cancer of which 1818 had not been offered the test and over seven hundred of them who were given the Flexi-Scope Test.

By and large, the test helped in cutting fatality rate by forty-three percent and occurrence of bowel cancer by thirty-three percent.

• Polyps

  These are formations often referred to as colon polyps that develop within the colon. If you or someone in your family has a history of colon polyps this increases the risk of developing colon cancer.

• Smoking

  Smoking cigarettes over a long period of time can be an issue in what causes colon cancer for two reasons. First is the fact that smoking may have a direct impact on increasing the size of polyps and second is the knowledge that inhaled smoke may allow carcinogens to travel to the colon.

• Obesity and lack of exercise

  Although obesity in itself is thought to increase the risk of developing colon cancer this risk is increased even more when a lack of exercise is added to it.

• Family History

  Colon cancer can often occur in individuals who have no family members who have ever had this type of cancer however in some cases in can be passed down through a family.

• Diabetes

  It has been suggested that individuals with diabetes who are dependent on insulin to regulate their sugar levels may be at an increased risk of developing colon cancer.

• Age

  This is thought to be the most common risk factor associated with the development of colon cancer. This is simply because as a person’s age progresses the likelihood of developing polyp increases thus increasing the risk of developing colon cancer.

• Diet

  Eating foods with a high fat content particularly that derived from animal fat may increase the risks of colon cancer.

• Alcohol

  There are mixed conceptions on this one as some studies show that alcohol increases the risk of colon cancer while other studies show that alcohol decreases this risk and still other studies have shown that alcohol consumption has no effect at all. Basically it depends on the type of alcohol being consumed and how much is consumed.

In order to know what to do to prevent colon cancer it is necessary to know what causes colon cancer. This is extremely valuable information and can go a long way in knowing what changes you may need to make to your daily style of living in order to greatly reduce your risk of developing colon cancer and thus improving your overall quality of life.

Investigators just 2 years earlier has cited that a grouping of the beleaguered cancer agent DFMO and sundilac – medicine for treating arthritis reduced the chances of colon polyp growths which could be causing colon cancer.

Presently, the analogous investigative group have uncovered that the medicine’s drastic polyp-reducing outcomes could be restricted to individuals that had lesser consumption of food items loaded with polyamines – chemicals present in foods which has been associated with greater likelihood of developing colon cancer.

Investigators expounded that those people having high polyamine consumption in their dietetic intake were evidently not benefited by DFMO and sulindac.

Colon cancer has affected an estimate one lakh sixty thousand U.S. citizens during 2009. The American Cancer Society has estimated that the likelihood of an individual developing colon cancer during his/her lifespan is nearly 1 in nineteen.

The Function of Polyamines

During the new-fangled study, investigators going back performed a re-analysis of data on nearly two hundred individuals that were entrants in their original DFMO-sundilac trial. These trial entrants had in the recent past undergone surgery for removal of one or more colorectal polyps (adenomas).

Entrants were categorized into 4 sets dependent on their polyamine consumption levels.

Firstly, the investigators evaluated tissue samples which had been drawn from the entrants prior the study commencing. They uncovered that in comparison to those candidates having the least consumption, individuals having the maximum intake of polyamines had larger-sized and at an advanced staging of polyps with increased chances of them turning cancerous.

The investigators then scrutinized the effect of polyamine levels on the study outcome. During the study, patients were designated to treatment that comprised either a merger of DFMO- sulindac, or placebo.

During the original trial wherein no stratification of the entrants by polyamine consumption was done, colonoscopy examination subsequent to 3 years revealed that individuals taking DFMO- sundilac had a seventy percent lesser likelihood of developing a newly surfaced polyp in comparison to individuals offered a placebo.

Investigators pointed out that when polyamines were considered then the representation revealed a drastic change.

Those individuals in the smallest quartile of polyamine consumption had an eighty-one percent lesser likelihood of developing new polyps as compared to individuals offered a placebo. Such people were additionally eighty-nine percent less prone to develop large-sized adenomas and ninety-four percent less prone to develop advanced staging adenomas.

For individuals lying in the maximum quartile of polyamine consumption, DFMO- sundilac had no advantages at all.

Investigators found that increased intake of polyamine were lowering the efficacy of the medicines as viewed in the initial study. Individuals in the highest quartile were consuming nearly fifty percent greater polyamines as compared to the average individual.

DFMO that was earlier created as a cancer drug is presently been employed for treating African sleeping sickness and for removal of undesirable hair. Sundilac is an NSAID obtainable by the name Clinoril.

The test could identify CD24 protein which is present in high amounts in colon cancer as well as in growths that ordained to develop into colon cancer. In comparison, the CD24 protein levels are low in normal tissue.

The researchers stated that CD24 production is early on when colorectal cancer develops and could be involved in metastasis.

Colon cancer is mostly detected in later stages when the chances of recovery are usually dim. The new blood test aims at detecting the cancer early on when it is treatable.

The test could additionally be beneficial for recognizing patients for whom colonoscopy would be beneficial.

Colorectal cancer is one of the prevalent cancer types with an annual diagnosis of above 1,50,000 individuals in the United States alone. Though colonoscopies are capable of detecting the condition in its initial staging when most treatable – and also avoid it by detecting polyps prior to them turning malignant –several individuals eschew the method due to associated levels of discomforting sensations, pain and minuscule risk of complications.

There are other forms of non-invasive tests for colorectal cancer like the fecal occult blood test that detects blood presence in stool samples. However, blood presence in stools could also be indicative of a wide array of health issues, for instance, haemorrhoids which could lead to elevated rates of false-positive outcomes.

CD24 could not just forecast the existence of cancer amid less false-positive and negative rates, however could additionally identify elevated-risk pre-malignant growths. Thus their removal could help in preventing colon cancer from advancing.

Trial for Colon Cancer

During the novel study, the researchers firstly calculated CD24 protein levels in sixty-three colon cancer patients, nineteen individuals having adenoma, or pre-malignant colon growths and sixty-eight individuals is normal health.

CD24 was observed to be drastically high among people having colon cancer and adenoma in comparison to those in normal health.

They then additionally evaluated the precision of CD24 blood tests among seventy-three individuals: eleven of whom were having colon cancer, twenty-four individuals having adenomas and thirty-eight people exhibited no colon cancer symptoms.

The scientists detected that the test precisely diagnosed colorectal cancer among ninety-two percent of the cases; solely eight percent of colon cancer cases failed detection. The test showed false-positive outcomes in eight percent of the individuals that did not have cancer.

The test was able to precisely spot growths in eighty-four percent of the adenoma cases and had false-positive rate of eleven percent.

The researchers state the subsequent stride would be validating the outcomes in larger-scaled studies. The blood test would have a likely costing of fifty dollars and in case is able to pan out would prove to be an immensely beneficial device for widespread colon cancer cases.

During the colonoscopy procedure, polyps are removed and tissue samples are drawn from dubious sections of the colon which appear abnormal. The tissue sample is then sent for microscopic evaluation for establishing the presence or absence of malignancy.

Staging:

In case cancer has been diagnosed, then its staging – a method of determining the extent of metastasis of the cancer is performed. There could be no correlation between the size of the tumor and the cancer staging. Staging additionally allows the doctor to ascertain the form of therapy that the patient would undergo.

• Stage I
  The cancer has not metastasized past the inner areas of the colon or the rectum.
• Stage II
  The cancer has developed in the muscular layer of the colon or rectum.
• Stage III
  The cancer has been detected in one or further lymph nodes in the region.
• Stage IV
  Cancer has metastasized to other organs of the body like the liver, lungs or bones. This staging is independent of the depth of the tumor penetration or whether the disease has metastasized to the lymph nodes close to the tumor site.

Prognosis:

The survival chances are based on the staging of the cancer, with advanced staging correlating to graver forms of the cancer. The 5-year rates of survival are the proportion of patients that have lived for no less than 5 years subsequent to diagnosis. A 93 percent 5-year survival rate has been observed in those detected with Stage I cancer whereas merely eight percent five-year survival rates have been observed in those detected with stage IV cancer.

Surgery:

In the final staging of colorectal cancer, the general treatment is surgical intervention for the removal of the tumor and the adjacent tissues. In case of bigger sized tumors, the complete excision of the part of the colon and optionally the rectum. The positive aspect about surgery is that it has increasing levels of curative rates. In case cancer has metastasized to the other body organs, surgical intervention would not be able to provide a treatment – however the removal of the supplementary tumors, when doable could lower the signs.

Treatment of Advanced Colorectal Cancer:

In case the colorectal cancer has metastasized to one or further lymph nodes, i.e., stage III, it could yet be treated. Treatment classically comprises of a merger of treatments like surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy. In case the cancer has recurred following the preliminary treatment or has reached the other body organs, then it would turn out to be trickier to treat. However, radiation and chemotherapy could still assist in allaying the signs and facilitate lengthier existence.

Dealing with Chemotherapy:

Earlier chemotherapy was generally associated with causing a churning sensation in the stomach, however latest drugs have lesser likelihood of causing this problem, with several nausea-curbing medicines obtainable.

Radiofrequency Ablation or RFA:

RFA employs strong heat for scorching the tumors. With the assistance of CAT scans, a fine needle-alike tool is introduced delivering direct heat on to the tumor and the adjoining spot. This is an option for obliterating tumors that could not be taken out by surgery. Among patients having a restricted extent of liver metastases which could not be taken out by surgery, at times chemotherapy is merged with RFA for destroying the tumor.

Prevention Strategies:

• Consuming a wholesome dietetic intake, having ample physical exercise and curbing body fat could avert forty-five percent of the colorectal cancers.
• Dietetic intake less in fat, high in fiber and no less than 5 helpings of fruits and veggies daily are the recommendation put forth by the National Cancer Institute.
• The American Cancer Society has suggested exercising for no less than thirty minutes on a day-to-day basis.