The Colon Club

Hi everyone,

I'm brand new to this website. Hello!

I was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer (tumors in liver) back in December. I had a CAT scan recently that showed tumors "floating" near the colon, but not inside any organs.

Does anyone have this, too? Or more info about it?

Shawn

I did hear once of a women who was diagnosed with state 4 colon cancer that did not have the cancer inside her colon per say, but rather orginated in one of the many folds/turns in her colon. I'm not sure how reliable this story was, but anyway, a normal colonoscopy was unable to pick up the cancer, because it was not inside the colon. It was only thru surgery, and a biospy, that they were able to determine the cancer.

Again I repeat, I read about this story on some chat line many yrs ago, and am not sure how reliable it is.

Lee

your doc should be able to give you more details but when tumors occur outside of their original site (primary) they can get there by blood vessels, lymphatics, or local invasion of surrounding tissues. the intestines are supported by membranes called mesenteries which can carry blood/lymphatics/nerves etc. and sometimes a tumor can spread to the mesenteries or local fatty tissues in the pelvis or mesenteries. They can also be inside lymph nodes of which there are many in the abdomen and are then not truly inside the primary organ.

hope all goes well for you
Cheers CRguy

Hi Shawn
My last recurrance-the Pet scan showed a hot spot in the sigmoid area. A colonocsopy did not show it. Exploratory surgery found it on the outside of the recto sigmoid colon, so I ended up with another resection. My first was in the ascending colon. I was first diagnosed T3N1M0. The FOLFOX4 or the FOLFIRI with Avastin unfortunately didn't get rid of those few cancer cells left. Each time after surgery my CEA returned to levels below 3.0. Hope this helps.
Kandy