You are in the WebMD Content Archive for WebMD Video.
WebMD archives all video content after 48 months to ensure our readers can easily find the most timely content.
To locate the most current information on this topic, please use our search box
Reviewed By: Matthew Hoffman,
SOURCES: Nancy Kemeny, MD Oncologist; Colorectal Cancer Specialist Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
© 2006 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved.
What are the differences between colon and rectal cancers?
You start from the GI tract, you go into the esophagus, the stomach, the small bowel, and then you hit the colon. And at the very end of the colon is the rectum. So, in a sense, rectal cancer is worse, because it's very low, many times if it's really low, in order to remove it, the patient has to have a colostomy, which in the minds of many patients is a very bad thing. But for almost all colon cancers, you do not need a colostomy. So it's only the very low rectal cancers where that's needed, and also in the treatment, when you're talking about adjuvant treatment, which means the treatment after a section, the treatments will be different.
Because in colon cancer, since it's higher up, and since it spreads in the abdomen, and to the liver and lungs, the treatment is chemotherapy afterwards. But in rectal cancer, since it's very low, and it's very close to the nerves and the bones and everything is very close to where the rectum is, you need radiation as well as chemotherapy after the surgery, or even before the surgery. A lot of surgeons these days like to do radiation and chemotherapy before the surgery to try to reduce the tumor, so they will have to do less surgery.
So the treatments are different, depending on whether it's colon or rectum. But once it's metastatic, meaning that it's spread to the liver or lungs, or to the bones, then the treatment is the same.
Back Pain Test
Exercise for Better Sex
Vinegar for Diabetes
Drink Your Way To Weight Loss
Pre-Diabetes
Gallbladder Basics
Weight Loss Secret Weapon
IBS Trigger Foods
Does Porn Hurt a Relationship?
Male Orgasms: How They Change
Cholesterol-Busting Exercise
What's Your Sleep Personality?
Herpes Vaccine Study
Truth about Passing Gas
Are You Using a Condom Correctly?
Snoring Cure
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Diarrhea Causes and Treatments
Acupuncture for Back Pain
Common Constipation Treatments
Dirty Truth About Hand Washing
4-D Ultrasound
ED Exercise
Sex Advice for Single Women
Cholesterol Guidelines
Diagnosing Yeast Infections
Truth About Coffee
Healing Heel Pain
Snacks for Diabetics
Best Butt Exercises
To perform a video search, please enter a term in the search box located to the right of the video player above.
Not Available.
©2005-2012 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information.
