Can rectal cancer be controlled by taking medicine?

The treatment of all malignant tumors requires timely treatment, which is a key to whether it can be cured. The same is true for the treatment of rectal cancer. However, since the early symptoms of rectal cancer are not obvious, the best treatment time is often missed, thus endangering the patient's life. Many patients are asking if rectal cancer can be controlled by taking medicine. The answer is no. Rectal cancer must be treated in time. Let's take a closer look below.

Treatment of rectal cancer is a comprehensive treatment with surgery as the main method. The specific method of surgery is determined based on the results of pathological examination and imaging examination, and the patient and family members are informed that a fistula may be required, which is commonly known as diversion. This will cause great pressure on the patient's daily life and psychology. The patient should be fully informed of the reasons for doing so, the method of surgery, and the daily care after surgery, in order to gain the understanding and cooperation of the patient and family members, and to minimize the pain caused to the patient by the diversion.

Since you will need to stay in bed and fast after the operation, you should quit smoking before the operation and practice urinating in bed to reduce the inconvenience caused by staying in bed after the operation.

Radiotherapy and chemotherapy are divided into adjuvant therapy and neoadjuvant therapy. Neoadjuvant therapy is actually preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and the concept of adjuvant therapy is postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Currently, for rectal cancer, patients with tumors infiltrating the muscular layer or positive lymph nodes are recommended to undergo neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy before surgery. The current trend is to advocate simultaneous radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy can cause some damage to normal cells or organs in the human body in clinical practice, such as digestive tract reactions, damage to liver and kidney function, and damage to the hematopoietic system. These indicators should be checked frequently during treatment, and if obvious abnormalities are found, they should be discontinued in time.

As for other treatment methods, such as traditional Chinese medicine treatment, immunotherapy, etc., they can also be used as auxiliary.

For late-stage or metastatic rectal cancer, comprehensive treatment is generally used, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Of course, early-stage rectal cancer often needs to be treated in combination with other treatment methods after surgery to improve the prognosis and survival rate of the disease.