Expert: Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. - 11/13/2006

Question
My father, aged 60, was recently diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer.  He had a resection, tumor removed from secum, surgeon said "spots were everywhere, all over his abdomen" but the scan said the liver and lungs look clean.  Pathology confirmed adenocarcinoma, 8 of 12 lymph nodes affected.  He is to begin chemo in about 3 weeks after recovering from his surgery.  I'm trying to find a prognosis that is specific to this metastes but everyone online always refers to spread to liver. He is to go in for a second opinion this Thursday, I just wanted to have as much info as possible before seeing the doctor. Can you tell me what your experience has been with this kind of spread?

Answer
Well, colon cancer spreading like this into the abdominal cavity - if I have understood you correctly - is not that common. It is mostly seen in ovarian cancers. However it is certainly not a good sign and if correct he is definitely a stage 4 colon cancer patient. I will have to evaluate his case as any stage 4 colon cancer. Chemo therapy can not cure him unfortunately. What it can - at best - do is to prolong his survival time and hopefully - for a time - relieve his symptoms, at the cost of some sometimes hard side effects of the therapy. How long his survival time will be is at present impossible to predict as we do not at present know how well his cancer will respond to the therapy. I'm sorry I have nothing better to tell you!