Low Rectal Cancer

Low Rectal Cancer Treatment


The treatment part of the rectal cancer experience is the most demanding. The process begins as soon as you are diagnosed while you are just trying to adjust to the reality that you have rectal cancer.  The decisions that you must immediately make will have lasting consequences that will literally affect the quality of your life forever.


The first goal is naturally to increase the odds that you will be cured or at the very least increase your lift span.  The diagnosis of rectal cancer almost always leads to surgery.  Adjuvant therapy (Chemo or Radiation), will likely be recommended if the cancer is Stage 3 or 4.  The challenge you will face is to quickly become educated about your options and then decide on how aggressive of treatment you want to authorize.  The decisions you make will be very hard.  The medical community will probably recommend the most aggressive, the most expensive and often the most life alternating treatment that they have within their arsenal.  There will probably be very little discussion about the consequences or the incremental benefits of pursuing these aggressive options.


The second goal that is rarely discussed by the medical community is to minimize the unavoidable effect that the treatment will have on your bowel function. You may unquestionably accept the recommendation of your doctors that may indeed leave you cancer free or may delay the statistically inevitable results of your stage of cancer but will leave you with a change in bowel function. 


The questions that you need to ask and that doctors may not want to answer are:


    If I agree to this procedure, what are my chances of being cancer free?


    Statistically, how long will these procedures extend my chances for survival?


    What will the long term effects of these procedures be on my bowel function?


Educate Yourself


Improving Outcomes in Colorectal Cancers  A detailed discussion of the options. 


Explore on Goggle with these key words:


Colorectal Cancer, Low Rectal Cancer, Bowel Cancer, Rectal Cancer, Treatment