Colon cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in many countries, including the US. These days if caught early enough it is a disease that is highly treatable, but a patient’s prognosis depends very much upon at which stage their disease is diagnosed.

Technically there are four stages of colon cancer, with a fifth that is labeled “reoccurring”;

Stage 0 Colon Cancer: The very first signs that colon cancer is developing. Only the lining of the colon is affected and there are only “polyps” present. If these are successfully removed during a standard colonoscopy procedure a patient’s chances of developing further cancer is greatly reduced.

Stage 1 Colon Cancer:  At this stage the formerly harmless polyp has developed into a tumor, and has grown beyond the colon lining to walls or even the rectum itself (this is why the disease is also referred to as colorectal cancer) Standard treatment is a surgical procedure known as a colon resection, which removes the diseased area of the colon without damaging the healthy portions. The five year survival rate for patients treated at this stage is a full 95%.

Stage II Colon Cancer:  At this stage the cancer has spread from the confines of the colon to surrounding tissues bit has not yet penetrated the lymph nodes. Although resection surgery is also commonly used at this stage of the disease the five year survival rate plummets to 60%, even with surgical intervention.

Stage III Colon Cancer: Cancer that has spread beyond the colon area and into the lymph nodes is termed Stage III colon cancer. At stage III the cancer has yet to spread to other bodily organs and aggressive combination of surgery and chemotherapy is often prescribed. The five year survival rate for colon cancer patients who are diagnosed at Stage III is somewhere between 35 and 60 percent.

Stage IV: Colon cancer patients at this stage face a fairly grim prognosis. The cancer has spread to other organs in the body, often the lungs and liver. Surgery is sometimes attempted to remove all the affected organs but the chances of a Stage IV cancer patient reaching the five year survival mark are a paltry 3%.

Reoccurring : Curing colon cancer once is no guarantee that it will never return. Those who have survived the disease still must undergo regular checkups and screenings to ensure that the disease has not reoccurred.