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Can Chemotherapy Be Given In Stage 2 Intestinal Cancer?
my father is having cancer in his large intestine,tumor was removed by operation, two out of four test are positive and cancer is in stage 2. how serious is his condition, can chemotherapy be started when his operation wound is not healed? stag 2 is cure able or not?
posted on
Fri, 14 Mar 2014
Medically reviewed by
Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team
Sat, 25 Oct 2014
Answered on
Mon, 27 Oct 2014
Last reviewed on
Hi, How are you? My name is Dr Suresh Raghavaiah. I am a Surgical gastroenterologist and I hope to answer your question today.
I am sorry to hear about your father's diagnosis. But the good news is that it looks like all the cancer has been successfully removed surgically. As you say it is stage 2 colon cancer and it does mandates adjuvant chemotherapy.
But chemo is usually started six weeks after any surgery. This is because chemotherapy destroys or decreases the ability of the body to fight infections and potentially heal itself. So if a patient has had surgery, it is a norm that chemo be started only after the incision heals,...which usually takes 4-6 weeks. This will also give the patient a chance to recuperate from the surgery he has just had, and develop strength to tolerate the chemotherapy. There are no studies which have been done to show that starting chemo earlier than six weeks really affect the prognosis. So I would not worry too much and give your Dad a chance to recover completely before starting the chemo.
Hope this helps and hope your Dad starts to feel better
Please do not hesitate to write back for clarifications.
Have a great day.
Dr Suresh Raghavaiah
I am sorry to hear about your father's diagnosis. But the good news is that it looks like all the cancer has been successfully removed surgically. As you say it is stage 2 colon cancer and it does mandates adjuvant chemotherapy.
But chemo is usually started six weeks after any surgery. This is because chemotherapy destroys or decreases the ability of the body to fight infections and potentially heal itself. So if a patient has had surgery, it is a norm that chemo be started only after the incision heals,...which usually takes 4-6 weeks. This will also give the patient a chance to recuperate from the surgery he has just had, and develop strength to tolerate the chemotherapy. There are no studies which have been done to show that starting chemo earlier than six weeks really affect the prognosis. So I would not worry too much and give your Dad a chance to recover completely before starting the chemo.
Hope this helps and hope your Dad starts to feel better
Please do not hesitate to write back for clarifications.
Have a great day.
Dr Suresh Raghavaiah
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