my husband has stage IV colon cancer and has been through surgery, chemo, radiation and for the past few months on maintenance. His count dropped until about 4-5 months ago when it started creeping up slowly. He has had a CT scan and nothing showed and the oncologist tells him it is stable and nothing new yet the numbers continue to climb. Any suggestions on where to go from here? Thank you
Hi, Thanks for writing in. Stage IV colon cancer includes metastasis spread to organs like liver and lungs and this occurs in half patients with colon cancer. Treatment of stage IV colon cancer includes the following methods1. Surgery.2. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy.3. Local ablation (e.g. radiofrequency ablation).4. Adjuvant chemotherapy.5. Intra-arterial chemotherapy. Treatment for metastasis is often guided due to criteria evolved to administer various treatment methods. Survival in this situation depends on his general condition. He should be provided with adequate nutrition and good food.However, the final outcome of the situation in colon cancer stage IV might not always be completely curable; however we must fight the battle with cancer till the end. Survival in metastasis might be from 6 months to over 2 years if the disease remains stable when given chemotherapy. Please do not worry.