COLON CANCER

PET Scan Can Find Colon Cancer Early

The earlier that your colon cancer is found, the better the chances for your successful treatment.

Early diagnosis of colon cancer is one of the key elements to its cure. Colon cancer develops slowly over a period of several years. Before colon cancer develops, there are often earlier changes in the lining of the colon or rectum. If colon cancer is found early -- before it has spread -- the disease is considered curable. However, as the tumour spreads to the lymph nodes, a patient's chance of living at least five years drops to 40 to 60 percent. If the cancer has already spread to distant organs, the outlook for long-term survival is bleak.

CareImaging PET Scan Clinic is committed to using the power of PET scan technology to find colon cancer early and therefore improve colon cancer treatment results and save Canadian lives.

How a PET Scan can make a difference with Colon Cancer:

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Colon Cancer Treatment

Before you begin colon cancer treatment, your doctors must determine whether or how much the colon or rectum cancer has spread. This is called staging the cancer. In colon cancer, staging reflects how far into the colon the tumour has grown and whether or not it has spread beyond it, either to the lymph nodes or to distant organs. Early stages of colon cancer may be curable; however, in most cases cancer that has spread to other organs is incurable, once again highlighting the importance of early detection.

The treatment option your doctors choose -- surgery, radiation therapy, or chemotherapy, or some combination, for example -- as well as the outlook for your recovery depends on the stage of the colon cancer. For early colon cancer, surgery may be all that is needed. For more advanced colon cancer, chemical or radiation therapy may be needed as well to increase the chance of a cure or delay the colon cancer's progression.

A PET scan is the most useful test you can have when doctors are staging or re-staging colon or rectal cancer because it is more accurate than CT or any other test.

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Colon Cancer Follow Up

For several years after colon cancer treatment, it is important to have regular follow-ups to find out if any active cancer cells return. Physical and rectal exams by a physician, regular colonoscopy, and blood tests are important to help tell if the cancer has come back. Blood markers like CEA are present in some patients with active colon cancer, so a rise in these blood values is used as an early warning sign that the cancer has returned. But some people without cancer also have CEA in their blood, so it cannot be a specific test for cancer.

PET scan imaging is also critical in looking for the return of the colon cancer. Before PET, it was extremely difficult to monitor patients for the recurrence of cancer. Earlier imaging tests might not see the cancer as sensitively as PET, which could result in a delay of further treatment. In many patients with colorectal cancer, a mass may develop in the pelvis. This mass can be seen on a CT scan, but CT cannot determine whether the mass resulted from surgical or radiation scarring, or is a recurrent cancer that must be treated.

A PET scan can identify whether the mass is cancerous because it will pick up the radioactive glucose and be seen on the scan results. If, however, the mass is scarring caused by the radiation treatments, no glucose uptake will be seen in the area of the mass.

PET can be used to image tumour response to therapy and to detect recurrence in successfully treated lesions. After surgery and other treatments, PET is an extremely important tool in monitoring whether any cancer cells have returned and if treatment should be re-started.

Colon cancer rarely recurs after 5 years; thus most patients who live 5 years without recurrence are considered cured. In the interim, however, make sure that a PET scan is a part of your regular testing.

Call CareImaging today at 905-712-9500 or email us at info@careimaging.com for more information on the benefits of a PET scan or to schedule a PET scan.

Colon Cancer Diagnosis

Over 95 percent of colon and rectal cancers are a type of cancer of the cells that are on the inside lining of the colon and rectum. Colon cancer can be prevented if the polyps that form on these linings that lead to the cancer are detected and removed. Recently, screening methods have been recommended for people without symptoms to try to find either the polyps or cancer early.

In many cases, these tests can find colorectal cancers at an early stage and greatly improve the chances of successful treatment. Screening tests include the following:

• Physical exam -- as a part of your routine visit to your physician
• Fecal occult blood test -- take home kits that test multiple stool samples
• Sigmoidoscopy/colonoscopy -- an x-ray procedure used in which a tube is inserted inside the colon to look for changes or polyps that might be the start of cancer.
• Barium enema -- an x-ray procedure that takes pictures of the colon

Screening is so important because most colon cancers have no symptoms. Hidden blood in the stool is often the only warning sign of colon cancer. However, you should talk to a doctor if you have any of these symptoms, which can be associated with colon and rectal cancer:

• A change in bowel habits such as diarrhea, constipation, or narrowing of the stool that lasts for more than a few days
• A feeling that you need to have a bowel movement that doesn't go away after doing so
• Unexplained weight loss
• Constant tiredness
• Bleeding from the rectum or blood in the stool
• Cramping or tenderness in the abdomen
• Unexplained low blood counts
• Bowel obstruction

If colon cancer is detected in its early stages it is up to 90 percent curable. If you have any of these symptoms, visit your own physician and discuss your concerns.

When colon cancer is found - PET Scanning can help.

Further Testing for Colon Cancer

If your doctor suspects you have colon cancer, you will need to have further tests to find out if the disease is really present and if so, whether it has spread. To find out if the cancer is present, you will need to have a biopsy procedure, which may be done as a part of a colonoscopy. Your doctor may order a series of blood tests to look for substances (like CEA and CA-19-9) that are made by colon and rectal cancer cells and released into the blood stream.

In cases of suspected or known colon cancer, your doctor may also order a CT scan to show the structure of the organs and tissues in the abdomen. While these tests can provide information regarding the size and location of the primary tumour and may be able to identify other abnormalities that represent the spread of the disease, they cannot tell whether the abnormalities are benign or cancerous.

PET scanning is an important addition to the tests that are done right after you are diagnosed with cancer of the colon or rectum. PET Scan for colon cancer is available at the CareImaging PET Scan Clinic in Ontario. A PET scan can accurately detect the cancer and see how far it may have spread.

Call CareImaging today at 905-712-9500 or email us at info@careimaging.com for more information on the benefits of a PET scan or to schedule a PET scan.

Colon Cancer Statistics

Cancer of the colon and rectum accounts for 15% of cancer deaths; only lung cancer causes more deaths as a single type of cancer. In 2002, there will be 17,600 new cases of colon cancer in Canada affecting 1 person in 20.. The good news is that the death rate from colorectal cancer has been going down for the past 20 years. This may be because there are fewer cases, because more of the cases are found early, and also because treatments have improved. About 70% of patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer will undergo surgery, although one-third of these patients will develop recurrence some time after surgery.

More Resources on Colon Cancer:

Canadian Cancer Society
Colorectal Association of Canada