Colorectal Cancer Research Briefs: Patients want colonoscopy videos

Briefly

• Hormone replacement therapy reduces risk of colon cancer.
• Smoking before age 30 increases chances that colon cancer will recur.
• Low CEA levels improve both survival and disease-free survival for stage II colon cancer.
• Most patients want videos of their colonoscopies and are willing to pay for them. Continue reading…

Posted by Kate Murphy on February 10th, 2010
Posted in: Research & Treatment News | 1 Comment »
Tags: CEA, colonoscopy, hormone replacement therapy, recurrence, survival

CEA Flares During Chemo Don’t Mean Cancer Progression

Colorectal cancer patients whose CEA blood tests rise at the beginning of chemotherapy and then fall (CEA flare) do better than patients with a consistently rising CEA.   CEA flares don’t necessarily predict worsening cancer.

Compared to patients with consistently rising carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), patients who had a CEA flare had more tumor shrinkage, longer time before their cancer got worse, and longer survival time. Continue reading…

Posted by Kate Murphy on November 10th, 2009
Posted in: Research & Treatment News | 1 Comment »
Tags: carcinoembryonic antigen, CEA, chemotherapy

Early Stage Patients Benefit from Regular Follow-Up

Patients with very early stage colon cancer benefit as much from regular followup testing after surgery as later stage patients do.

While overall patients with stage I or IIA colon cancer (early stage) have a lower risk of cancer returning than patients with stage IIB or III (later stage), careful surveillance after surgery is as effective in finding and treating cancer in both groups.

About one in three patients in both the early and late stage who had a recurrence detected during surveillance were able to have surgery with the goal of curing their cancer.   Continue reading…

Posted by Kate Murphy on September 21st, 2009
Posted in: Research & Treatment News | 1 Comment »
Tags: CEA, recurrence, surveillance, survival