Re: Colon cancer survival rates?
Replying 5 months later, but, in case you're still interested:
January 10, 2016 (almost 5 years ago) I was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer.
I was given a 20% chance of living with treatment and was told I would be dead in 6 months without treatment.
My daughter told me to think of it as being 1 of 10 people in a room of which only 2 would walk out. I just had to be one of those 2.
And I was.
My last colonoscopy in February was clear, and my labs and CT scans have shown no signs of cancer.
However, my cancer had "only" spread to my liver, not my lungs, which made it easier to treat, because, in addition to chemotherapy, I could have a large chunk of intestine removed and most of my liver removed without impacting my quality of life or bodily function, whereas losing a lung affects breathing and then oxygen supply to the blood, and, unlike the liver, lungs do not grow back. Plus, the part of my colon removed was not near either end.
Also, I did not drink, smoke, or eat highly processed foods; I rarely ate meat and was not overweight; and I exercised regularly.
And my body responded extremely well to the chemotherapy, that is, the tumors began to shrink immediately.
And now I no longer live in the place I lived in for 10 years right before moving out and then being diagnosed --a place where the next resident also contracted colon cancer and died (he was in his 80s and a lifelong chainsmoker).
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