Expert: Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. - 12/19/2007

Question
Dear Doctor,
A relative of mine was diagnosed with stage II  colon cancer which was locally invasive. It invaded the whole wall of the colon in the sigmoid area and it also invaded the iliacus muscle and iliac vessels. The surgeon recommended radiotherapy in addition to chemotherapy. Do you think that this cancer can  be cured by these to therapies ?! what are the chances?! what kind of chemotherapy do you recommend?! and I would like to add that the histopathology report said that the tumor was adenocarcinoma moderately differentiated, with no vascular invasion or lymph node involvement.
Thank you

Answer
I certainly recommend chemotherapy. There are many such therapies available. Exactly which of these that should be used can only be determined by the dr. in charge of and with full knowledge of the patient, so I'm VERY reluctant to offer any recommendations. I do not think your relative has a choice. In this situation he needs every effort to improve his chances so I think he should accept chemo therapy! It is impossible to give you any kind of success probability in a single case like this. Statistics is for vast numbers of cases. Colon cancers are usually (except in the rectum) not very sensitive to radiation, so radiation therapy is more doubtful. On the other hand I can understand that his dr. in this situation wants to do anything and everything in order to try to improve the chances. So I'm not really against it. Good luck!