Management and Treatment

Surgery is the most common colon cancer treatment. There are different colon cancer surgeries and procedures:

*Polypectomy: This surgery removes cancerous polyps.

*Partial colectomy: This is also called colon resection surgery. Surgeons remove the section of your colon that contains a tumor and some surrounding healthy tissue. They’ll reconnect healthy colon sections in a procedure called anastomosis.

*Surgical resection with colostomy: Like a colectomy, surgeons remove the section of your colon that contains a tumor. In this surgery, however, they can’t connect healthy colon sections. Instead, they do a colostomy. In a colostomy, your bowel is moved to an opening in your abdominal wall so your poop is collected in a bag.

*Radiofrequency ablation: This procedure uses heat to destroy cancer cells.

Healthcare providers may combine surgery with adjuvant therapy. This is cancer treatment done before or after surgery. They may also use these treatments for colon cancer that has spread or come back. Treatments may include:

*Chemotherapy: Healthcare providers may use chemotherapy drugs to shrink tumors and ease colon cancer symptoms.

*Targeted therapy: This treatment targets the genes, proteins and tissues that help colon cancer cells grow and multiply. Healthcare providers often use a type of targeted therapy called monoclonal antibody therapy. This therapy uses lab-created antibodies that attach to specific targets on cancer cells or cells that help cancer cells grow. The antibodies kill the cancer cells.