How to treat stage II rectal cancer

The treatment of rectal cancer is mainly divided into two aspects, namely radical treatment and palliative treatment. The treatment purposes of the two aspects are completely different. Radical treatment is mainly based on surgical treatment, while palliative treatment is mainly based on radiotherapy and chemotherapy. So how to treat stage II rectal cancer? Regarding this issue, let's take a closer look at it below.

Generally speaking, as long as colon cancer has not metastasized, surgery is the first choice. Even if metastasis has occurred, some patients, such as those with severe bleeding or intestinal obstruction, also need surgery, called palliative surgery. Surgery is a very important treatment method in the treatment of colon cancer. The rest are chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

After the diagnosis and surgery of the middle and lower rectal cancer, auxiliary radiotherapy must be performed first. This is often not taken seriously or is not available in many patients or some primary hospitals. Chemotherapy alone is not enough. Because the middle and lower rectum is not covered by the peritoneum, it is outside the peritoneum, and the tumor easily breaks through the muscle layer and goes directly to the connective tissue around the rectum. It can then easily metastasize to the liver and lungs through the blood. After the liver and lung metastasis occurs, the patient's survival period will be significantly shortened. For patients with middle and lower rectal cancer, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are performed after surgery, especially radiotherapy.

So far, there are two new drugs abroad for colorectal cancer, which are the targeted therapies just introduced. One is Avastin and the other is Erbitux. One of these two drugs is a monoclonal antibody against vascular endothelial growth factor, and the other is a monoclonal antibody against epidermal growth factor receptor. These two drugs, when used in combination with chemotherapy, can significantly improve the efficacy and disease stability period of patients with advanced colorectal cancer. On average, each drug can extend the life of patients with advanced colorectal cancer by 3-5 months.

So far, the life span of patients with advanced colorectal cancer (the so-called advanced stage refers to recurrent and metastatic colorectal cancer) can be extended to about 30 months on average through advanced active targeted therapy. In the past, the average survival period of 5-fluorouracil and calcium tetrahydrofolate was only about 10 months. In the past 5 to 10 years, several new chemotherapy drugs have appeared, including oxaloplatin, Xeloda, and Capto, which can extend the adjuvant therapy and treatment of advanced colon cancer. If the targeted therapy mentioned earlier is combined, the patient's survival period can be extended by another half a year or more than ten months, so that the median survival period of advanced patients can be increased by 30 months.

At present, the treatment of rectal cancer still has great limitations. Patients in the late stage are generally incurable, and can only be treated with palliative care to prolong the patient's survival time and improve their quality of life. Of course, although the cure rate for early-stage rectal cancer patients cannot reach 100%, the vast majority of patients can be cured.