Can patients with advanced colon cancer be cured?

Can patients with advanced colon cancer be cured? In today's society, more and more people are suffering from cancer. We all know that cancer is a terminal illness, but it is not impossible to cure it. Today I will talk to you about the question "Can patients with advanced colon cancer be cured?" Please read on patiently.

Colon cancer in late stages still has a chance of being cured

Clinical data show that more than 50% of colorectal cancers will have liver metastases, of which about 35% of new colorectal cancers are accompanied by synchronous liver metastases. Only 20% of patients with liver metastases at the first diagnosis have the possibility of radical surgery, and the vast majority of patients cannot obtain radical resection of liver metastases. Professor Xu Ruihua, deputy director of the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, pointed out that the median survival time of patients with resectable colorectal cancer liver metastases is about 35 months, and the 5-year survival rate is about 30% to 50%. The prognosis of patients whose liver metastases cannot be removed is much worse, so more active and scientific treatment measures should be taken to try to transform the original unresectable liver metastases into resectable ones, and maximize the treatment effect.

Professor of Chinese Medicine further pointed out that the median survival of patients with colorectal cancer liver metastasis who do not receive treatment is only 6 to 12 months, and the median survival of patients with liver metastasis who receive chemotherapy alone is 12 to 24 months, and very few can survive for more than 5 years. The 5-year survival rate of patients with liver metastasis who can receive radical surgery can reach 35 to 58 percent.

Therefore, patients with unresectable liver metastases should receive neoadjuvant therapy, that is, drug therapy or radiotherapy before surgery to shrink the tumor tissue to a range that can be operated on, and then perform radical resection surgery. Chemotherapy combined with molecular targeted drugs represented by Erbitux can significantly improve chemotherapy response rate and liver resection rate, reduce tumor volume, improve patient quality of life, and prolong survival time. Two recent studies have shown that the addition of targeted therapy has converted approximately 34% and 58% of patients to resectable patients.

This means that after the liver metastases of these advanced patients are converted to resectable ones, their median survival is extended by 2 to 3 times, and they will regain hope of life. Experts also remind that when recurrent or metastatic colorectal cancer is confirmed, the K-ras gene status should be tested; for KRAS wild-type patients, the treatment of Erbitux combined with standard chemotherapy can achieve satisfactory prognosis for 60% of patients.