About malignant large bowel tumor
What is malignant large bowel tumor?
Pseudomyxoma peritonei is a rare malignant growth characterized by the progressive accumulation of mucus-secreting (mucinous) tumor cells within the abdomen and pelvis. The disorder develops after a small growth (polyp) located within the appendix bursts through the wall of the appendix, and spreads mucus-producing tumor cells throughout the surrounding surfaces (e.g., the membrane that lines the abdominal cavity [peritoneum]). As mucinous tumor cells accumulate, the abdominal area becomes swollen and digestive (gastrointestinal) function becomes impaired. Pseudomyxoma peritonei develops at a variable rate but may grow at a slower rate (indolent) than other malignancies within the abdomen.
What are the symptoms for malignant large bowel tumor?
Many people with colon cancer experience no symptoms in the early stages of the disease. When symptoms appear, they'll likely vary, depending on the cancer's size and location in your large intestine.
What are the causes for malignant large bowel tumor?
Doctors aren't certain what causes most colon cancers.
In general, colon cancer begins when healthy cells in the colon develop changes (mutations) in their DNA. A cell's DNA contains a set of instructions that tell a cell what to do.
Healthy cells grow and divide in an orderly way to keep your body functioning normally. But when a cell's DNA is damaged and becomes cancerous, cells continue to divide — even when new cells aren't needed. As the cells accumulate, they form a tumor.
With time, the cancer cells can grow to invade and destroy normal tissue nearby. And cancerous cells can travel to other parts of the body to form deposits there (metastasis).
What are the treatments for malignant large bowel tumor?
Which treatments are most likely to help you depends on your particular situation, including the location of your cancer, its stage and your other health concerns. Treatment for colon cancer usually involves surgery to remove the cancer. Other treatments, such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy, might also be recommended.
Surgery for early-stage colon cancer
If your colon cancer is very small, your doctor may recommend a minimally invasive approach to surgery, such as:
- Removing polyps during a colonoscopy (polypectomy). If your cancer is small, localized, completely contained within a polyp and in a very early stage, your doctor may be able to remove it completely during a colonoscopy.
- Endoscopic mucosal resection. Larger polyps might be removed during colonoscopy using special tools to remove the polyp and a small amount of the inner lining of the colon in a procedure called an endoscopic mucosal resection.
- Minimally invasive surgery (laparoscopic surgery). Polyps that can't be removed during a colonoscopy may be removed using laparoscopic surgery. In this procedure, your surgeon performs the operation through several small incisions in your abdominal wall, inserting instruments with attached cameras that display your colon on a video monitor. The surgeon may also take samples from lymph nodes in the area where the cancer is located.
Surgery for more advanced colon cancer Partial colectomy Open pop-up dialog box Close Partial colectomy Partial colectomy
During a partial colectomy, a surgeon removes the diseased portion of your colon and a small portion of surrounding healthy tissue. The surgeon may join the cut ends of the colon so that waste leaves your body normally. Or it might be necessary to connect the colon to an opening (stoma) in the abdominal wall, where waste leaves the body and collects in a bag attached to the opening. A stoma is usually temporary, but is sometimes permanent.
If the cancer has grown into or through your colon, your surgeon may recommend:
- Partial colectomy. During this procedure, the surgeon removes the part of your colon that contains the cancer, along with a margin of normal tissue on either side of the cancer. Your surgeon is often able to reconnect the healthy portions of your colon or rectum. This procedure can commonly be done by a minimally invasive approach (laparoscopy).
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Surgery to create a way for waste to leave your body. When it's not possible to reconnect the healthy portions of your colon or rectum, you may need an ostomy. This involves creating an opening in the wall of your abdomen from a portion of the remaining bowel for the elimination of stool into a bag that fits securely over the opening.
Sometimes the ostomy is only temporary, allowing your colon or rectum time to heal after surgery. In some cases, however, the colostomy may be permanent.
- Lymph node removal. Nearby lymph nodes are usually also removed during colon cancer surgery and tested for cancer.
Surgery for advanced cancer
If your cancer is very advanced or your overall health very poor, your surgeon may recommend an operation to relieve a blockage of your colon or other conditions in order to improve your symptoms. This surgery isn't done to cure cancer, but instead to relieve signs and symptoms, such as a blockage, bleeding or pain.
In specific cases where the cancer has spread only to the liver or lung but your overall health is otherwise good, your doctor may recommend surgery or other localized treatments to remove the cancer. Chemotherapy may be used before or after this type of procedure. This approach provides a chance to be free of cancer over the long term.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells. Chemotherapy for colon cancer is usually given after surgery if the cancer is larger or has spread to the lymph nodes. In this way, chemotherapy may kill any cancer cells that remain in the body and help reduce the risk of cancer recurrence.
Chemotherapy might also be used before an operation to shrink a large cancer so that it's easier to remove with surgery.
Chemotherapy can also be used to relieve symptoms of colon cancer that can't be removed with surgery or that has spread to other areas of the body. Sometimes it's combined with radiation therapy.
For some people with low-risk stage III colon cancer, a shorter course of chemotherapy after surgery may be possible. This approach may reduce the side effects compared with the traditional course of chemotherapy, and may be just as effective.
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy uses powerful energy sources, such as X-rays and protons, to kill cancer cells. It might be used to shrink a large cancer before an operation so that it can be removed more easily.
When surgery isn't an option, radiation therapy might be used to relieve symptoms, such as pain. Sometimes radiation is combined with chemotherapy.
Targeted drug therapy
Targeted drug treatments focus on specific abnormalities present within cancer cells. By blocking these abnormalities, targeted drug treatments can cause cancer cells to die.
Targeted drugs are usually combined with chemotherapy. Targeted drugs are typically reserved for people with advanced colon cancer.
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is a drug treatment that uses your immune system to fight cancer. Your body's disease-fighting immune system may not attack your cancer because the cancer cells produce proteins that blind the immune system cells from recognizing the cancer cells. Immunotherapy works by interfering with that process.
Immunotherapy is usually reserved for advanced colon cancer. Your doctor might have your cancer cells tested to see if they're likely to respond to this treatment.
Supportive (palliative) care
Palliative care is specialized medical care that focuses on providing relief from pain and other symptoms of a serious illness. Palliative care is provided by a team of doctors, nurses and other specially trained professionals that work with you, your family and your other doctors to provide an extra layer of support that complements your ongoing care.
Palliative care teams aim to improve the quality of life for people with cancer and their families. This form of care is offered alongside curative or other treatments you may be receiving.
When palliative care is used along with all of the other appropriate treatments, people with cancer may feel better and live longer.
What are the risk factors for malignant large bowel tumor?
Factors that may increase your risk of colon cancer include:
- Older age. Colon cancer can be diagnosed at any age, but a majority of people with colon cancer are older than 50. The rates of colon cancer in people younger than 50 have been increasing, but doctors aren't sure why.
- African-American race. African-Americans have a greater risk of colon cancer than do people of other races.
- A personal history of colorectal cancer or polyps. If you've already had colon cancer or noncancerous colon polyps, you have a greater risk of colon cancer in the future.
- Inflammatory intestinal conditions. Chronic inflammatory diseases of the colon, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, can increase your risk of colon cancer.
- Inherited syndromes that increase colon cancer risk. Some gene mutations passed through generations of your family can increase your risk of colon cancer significantly. Only a small percentage of colon cancers are linked to inherited genes. The most common inherited syndromes that increase colon cancer risk are familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) and Lynch syndrome, which is also known as hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC).
- Family history of colon cancer. You're more likely to develop colon cancer if you have a blood relative who has had the disease. If more than one family member has colon cancer or rectal cancer, your risk is even greater.
- Low-fiber, high-fat diet. Colon cancer and rectal cancer may be associated with a typical Western diet, which is low in fiber and high in fat and calories. Research in this area has had mixed results. Some studies have found an increased risk of colon cancer in people who eat diets high in red meat and processed meat.
- A sedentary lifestyle. People who are inactive are more likely to develop colon cancer. Getting regular physical activity may reduce your risk of colon cancer.
- Diabetes. People with diabetes or insulin resistance have an increased risk of colon cancer.
- Obesity. People who are obese have an increased risk of colon cancer and an increased risk of dying of colon cancer when compared with people considered normal weight.
- Smoking. People who smoke may have an increased risk of colon cancer.
- Alcohol. Heavy use of alcohol increases your risk of colon cancer.
- Radiation therapy for cancer. Radiation therapy directed at the abdomen to treat previous cancers increases the risk of colon cancer.
Is there a cure/medications for malignant large bowel tumor?
When a malignant big bowel tumor just affects the digestive system, it is quite curable and commonly cured.
1. Some of the possible treatments include colonic stenting, one-stage resection anastomosis, and subtotal or segmental colectomy, with or without intraoperative colonic irrigation.
2. The most effective and frequently the only treatment required for bowel cancer is surgery to remove the diseased portion of the colon.
3. Chemotherapy: the application of drugs to the death of cancer cells. Radiation is used in radiotherapy to eliminate cancer cells. Drugs are used in chemotherapy to kill cancer cells. If the cancer is more advanced or has spread to the lymph nodes, chemotherapy for colon cancer is typically administered following surgery. Chemotherapy may do this by eliminating any cancer cells that are still present in the body and lowering the likelihood of cancer recurrence.
Symptoms
Constipation, diarrhea, or a change in the stool's consistency that lasts for a long time are examples of persistent changes in bowel habits,Bleeding from the rectum or blood in the stools,Ongoing abdominal discomfort that includes cramps, gas, or pain,A sensation that your bowels aren't totally empty,Weakness or exhaustion,Unaccounted-for weight loss
Conditions
Constant lower abdominal (tummy) pain,Bloating, or discomfort that is always brought on by eating and may be linked to loss of appetite or significant unintentional weight loss,Persistent blood in your stool that occurs for no apparent reason or is associated with a change in bowel habits, which typically involves having to poop more and your poop becoming more runny
Drugs
5-Fluorouracil (5-FU),A drug called capecitabine (Xeloda), which transforms into 5-FU once it reaches the tumor,Combination medication in pill form of irinotecan (Camptosar), oxaliplatin (Eloxatin), trifluridine, and tipiracil (Lonsurf)