Synonyms
Cancer of the large intestine; Malignant neoplastic changes of the colon
Definition
Colon cancer refers to malignant neoplasia of the large intestine. The demarcation line to the more distal rectal cancer is defined as being proximal to 16 cm of the anocutaneous line.
Characteristics
Due to the slow development of precursor lesions in the form of adenomatous polyps or dysplastic lesions, no other tumor offers as many possibilities and as much time for preventive measures. Diagnosis of colon cancer in early stages highly increases the probability of curative resection. A 5-year survival rate of patients diagnosed with stage one colon cancer (limited to the bowel wall) is 90%, which is decreased to 35–60% in patients with a positive nodal status (stage III) and drops to less than 10% in the metastatic disease (stage IV).
Screening Strategies for the Average Risk Population
Early colon cancer detection programs have been suggested to asymptomatic population of a certain age. The...
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References
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© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York
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Möslein, G. (2008). Colon Cancer. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-47648-1_1265
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-47648-1_1265
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-36847-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47648-1
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