Chemotherapy Used for Colorectal Cancer

When diagnosed with colorectal cancer, it ultimately means you're suffering from cancer of the large intestine. For most people, the cancerous tissue develops out of small polyps that have formed along the intestinal walls. At first, these polyps are actually benign, so they're unable to invade surrounding tissue. However, the cells of a colon or rectal polyp can eventually become abnormal, resulting in a malignant tumor. It is at this time that the cells could begin to damage healthy tissue of your colon and rectum, making treatment a necessity.

Chemotherapy

• Chemotherapy is rarely the first option for treatment of colorectal cancer, especially in earlier stages of the disease. Usually, a colonoscopy or a colectomy is performed to either extract the malignancy itself or remove the diseased section of the large intestines, respectively. It isn't until the cancer becomes more advanced or there's a greater likelihood of recurrence that chemotherapy is used in the course of treatment. And it's typically administered in one of three ways: neoadjuvant, adjuvant or primary.

Neoadjuvant

• In certain cases of colorectal cancer, it may be necessary to utilize a neoadjuvant course of chemotherapy where a series of chemo drugs are administered prior to the "main" form of treatment, which is usually surgery. This is largely done to shrink the cancerous tissue before an operation, so that the procedure may be less extensive and could increase the chances of success for the full removal of cancerous tissue.

Adjuvant

• For others, it may be necessary to utilize an adjuvant course of chemotherapy where a series of these same drugs are administered after the "main" form of treatment, which is again usually surgery. In this situation, you're given drugs to kill any abnormal cells that still remain in your body after the removal of the malignancy or the diseased section of the large intestine. It may also be used in this fashion when there is a greater likelihood that the cancer may return.

Primary

• It may also be necessary to use chemotherapy as a form of primary care. With course of treatment, surgery is usually not an option, and the chemotherapy is being administered more so as a palliative approach to the management of the disease. You're not likely to see an actual "cure" of the cancer, but it should help to reduce the associated symptoms and improve your quality of life.

Types of Drugs

• Regardless of how chemotherapy is used for colorectal cancer, there are certain "anticancer" drugs that are regularly used with this form of the disease. Fluorouracil is probably the most common, but you may also be given capecitabine, oxaliplatin, irinotecan, leucovorin or a combination of two to three of the five. Most of these drugs are given intravenously over a course of weeks to months.