Right-sided colon cancer Vs Left-sided colon cancer!
The colon is an organ in our abdomen which helps us to store and propel out stool from our body. It also has a part in the absorption of fluids from the digestive tract. Anatomical point of view, it covers most part of the large intestine (we have small intestine too which mainly acts as a site of digestion and absorption) except cecum (starting off the large intestine) and rectum & anal canal (last part). The whole middle portion is known as the colon.
The colon is divided into 4 parts. They are ascending colon, transverse colon, descending colon and sigmoid colon. For this post's purpose, we will consider it into two parts- right-sided colon (ascending colon mainly) and left-sided colon (descending colon and sigmoid colon). Generally, any cancer arises from the colon; we treat them in the same way. But studies show that we have to differentiate cancers originated in the different part of the colon for increasing patient's survival.
image source showing colon cancer in the original position. No metastasis (spread)
The New Study:
The study was conducted by lead researcher Dr Alan Venook, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. The study included more than 1000 colon cancer patients who were in advanced stage (cancer already had spread; medically called metastasis). Some of them had right-sided and some of them had left-sided colon cancer. They were offered the same treatment but the time of survival varied on two types of cancer (on basis of location) patients.
After adding one of the chemotherapy drugs, cetuximab, the patients with left-sided colon cancer survived an average of 36 months. While with the same treatment, patients with right-sided cancer survived less than 17 months. A similar pattern was found where a different drug was used named bevacizumab. The result was "more than 31 month" and "just over 24 months" for left-sided and right-sided colon cancer, respectively. From the study, it is clear that right-sided colon cancer is worse than left-sided one.
It is really an interesting finding which brings some adjustment in treating such a patient. Prof Dr Alan Venook said:
"It's a stunning and surprising finding, and the difference is dramatic,"
He also told:
"We don't have just colon cancer, but varieties of colon cancer and some have a better prognosis than others, the bad ones tend to be on the right side of the colon and the better ones are on the left side."
Conclusion:
A mere colon cancer diagnosis is not sufficient to institute appropriate management. An exact location of the origin of cancer needs to be found as the survival time differs between the right-sided and the left-sided colon cancers.
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