Colon Cancer Stages

The colon cancer stages will help a doctor measure just how much the cancer has spread in the body.

The Stage of Colon Cancer Affects the Treatment

No matter what colon cancer you might have, FAP or HNPCC, you need to know how far the cancer has spread in order to make sure you are making the best treatment choices. With colon cancer, since it can be hard to diagnose, sometimes the cancer, once found, has spread to other parts of the body. While this doesn’t mean the patient is going to die, it does mean that cancer will be harder to treat.

Here are the currently accepted stages of colon cancer:

• Stage 0 – This type of colon cancer has not spread to any other areas of the body beyond the rectum and the inner layers of the area.
• Stage I – The cancer in Stage I has spread into the mucosa, but has not reached the colon wall or rectum.
• Stage II – The cancer is now spread to the rectum and the wall of the colon, but it has not progressed to the lymph nodes.
• Stage III – The colon cancer has grown in the rectum and colon wall and has spread to the lymph nodes.
• Stage IV – In this stage, the colon cancer has spread to other organ systems in the body. This is often called metastatic cancer.

The stages of colon cancer can change during the course of treatment, though the later the stage, the more difficult the colorectal cancer may be to treat.