Colorectal canceris the third 美国最常见的癌症在美国对男女。

But in recent years, new advancements in early detection and treatment of colorectal cancer (also called colon cancer) show a promising future for patients and their families.

Experts provide an overview of what you can look forward to in the field of colorectal cancer treatment.

The death rate of colorectal cancer has been dropping for decades, according to the American Cancer Society 。In addition to new and improved colon cancer treatments, early detection is a big reason for this.

晚期转移性结肠癌或者蔓延到身体其他部位的癌症更难治疗。

诊断阶段癌症的人有5年的相对生存率 14 percent , meaning that 14 out of 100 people who have stage 4 colon cancer are still alive after 5 years.

相比之下，患有1阶段癌症的人有5年的相对生存率 90 percent 。

今天有许多测试可以帮助检测结肠癌的早期迹象甚至是开发它的易感性。

常规筛选

常规筛查早期检测是关键鹿e colon cancer. The types of screening tests are:

Generally, it’s recommended that you start screening for colon cancer at 50 years old, if you’re at average risk for colon cancer.

But if you have a family history of colon cancer or other signs that indicate a higher risk for it, your doctor may recommend more frequent screenings starting from a younger age. You can talk with your doctor about when to start screening for colon cancer.

Colon cancer screenings are important because they allow doctors to look inside your colon to see how things are doing.

美国医师学院recommends fecal occult blood testing every 2 years, a colonoscopy every 10 years, or a sigmoidoscopy every 10 years plus FIT every 2 years if your CRC risk is greater than 3%. Try this 风险计算器 to determine your own risk level.

在结肠镜检查期间，如果您的医生看到息肉或异常的生长，在您的结肠内部，他们可以将它们除去，以查看它们是否癌。

如果癌症早期鉴定出来，在转移之前会阻止癌症生长的可能性更高。

DNA测试

About5 to 10 percentof colon cancer cases are a result of a genetic mutation passed down from parents to children.

DNA测试is available that can help doctors learn whether you have a higher risk for developing colon cancer.

This testinginvolvestaking a sample of tissue from your blood or a polyp, or from a tumor if you’ve already received a colon cancer diagnosis.

在过去几十年中，外科技术继续在结肠癌治疗中发展，因为外科医生开发了新方法并更多地了解了删除的内容。

For example, research 表明在结肠直肠癌手术期间去除足够的淋巴结有助于增加成功结果的可能性。

Recent advancements in minimally invasive surgery to remove polyps or cancerous tissue mean patients experience less pain and a shorter recovery period, while surgeons enjoy more precision.

腹腔镜手术是一个例子：你的外科医生在腹部制作一些小的切口，他们通过它插入一点相机和手术器械。

今天，机器人手术甚至用于结直肠癌手术。它涉及使用机器人臂进行手术。这种新技术仍然正在研究其功效。

“Many patients now go home in 1 or 2 days, compared to 5 to 10 days 20 years ago [with minimally invasive surgery],” says Dr. Conor Delaney, chairman of the Digestive Disease and Surgery Institute at Cleveland Clinic.

“没有缺点，但这种微创手术需要专家外科医生和一个训练有素的外科手术，”他说。

In recent years, targeted therapy has been used together with or instead of chemotherapy.

与化疗药物不同，这些药物破坏癌组织和健康周围组织，靶向治疗药物只治疗癌细胞。

Additionally, they’re usually预订的for people with advanced colon cancer.

研究人员仍在研究有针对性治疗药物的益处，因为他们对每个人都不好。它们也可以非常昂贵并导致自己的一组副作用。

您的癌症团队应与您谈论使用有针对性治疗药物的潜在利益和缺点。今天常用的人包括：

  • bevacizumab (Avastin)
  • cetuximab（erbitux）
  • panitumumab (Vectibix)
  • ramucirumab (Cyramza)
  • Regorafenib（Stivarga）
  • ziv-aflibercept（zaltrap）

Perhaps the most recent innovation in colon cancer treatment involves immunotherapy, which uses your body’s immune system to fight cancer.

For example, a colon cancer vaccine 正在开发出促进免疫系统对癌症的反应。但是结肠癌的大多数免疫治疗仍在临床试验中。

至于结肠癌治疗的内容，大西洋卫生系统和大西洋医疗肿瘤学创始人迈克尔·凯恩博士迈克尔·凯恩博士说，还有更多的工作要做，但未来看起来很有希望。

“The sequencing of the human genome has begun to yield great promise in earlier diagnosis and more targeted treatment of many types of malignancies, including colon cancer,” Kane says.

根据Kane的说法，使用种系遗传学测试也有潜力来增加早期诊断的数量，从而提高治愈率。

这种类型的测试是在非癌细胞上进行的，以了解有人是否具有基因突变，这可以增加其发展癌症或其他疾病的风险。

此外，Kane表示治疗方法的进步是有助于最大化治疗结果并最小化副作用。

“结肠癌和直肠肿瘤的下一代测序承诺能够将个体患者与特定的”鸡尾酒“进行治疗，这可能导致改善疗效和最小化不必要的毒性，”凯恩说。

凯恩强调，我们需要鼓励开发更加互补的药物试验来扩大治疗方法。