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Many people come with an impression that cancer is one
disease and that chemotherapy is one type of treatment. We know that that is
not the case and let's talk today about how the treatment for colon cancer differs
from treatments for some other common cancers.
The treatment for colon cancer is very specific because we choose drugs that
are active only for colon cancer cells and we use a number of chemotherapy
drugs and we also use some of the newer drugs called targeted therapeutics
or biological therapies to treat colon cancer. There are probably at least four
or five different chemotherapy cocktails, so the combinations that we use for
colon cancer and each one is a little different and we try to select the best one
for individual patients based on their stage of disease, their risk factors, and their
other medical conditions that may interfere with the treatment effectiveness. Let
me give you an example, patients with cancer such as blood and bone marrow
cancers, leukemias and lymphomas often receive treatments over a period of
several weeks and some of the chemotherapy treatments require hospitalization
for weeks. At the time, they usually have significant hair loss and they have to be
on some of the blood transfusions and other intense therapies during that time.
For colon cancer patients, all of the treatments are outpatient, so it is usually
in and out, in the clinic and there is usually about two to three week interval
between individual treatments and I would say in general terms, patients usually
don't loose hair, although there are some treatments for colon cancer where
hair loss could happen and I would say a lot of patients could continue with their
normal lifestyle and I had quite a few patients that continued to work full-time
while they were receiving therapy for colon cancer.
For an interactive tool to learn more about your colon cancer and your
personalized treatment options, go to MyColonCancerCoach.org.