The Colon Club

My friend has been recently diagnosed with Stage T3 Rectal Cancer. Does anyone know of a great website similar to colonclub that would be of help to him? Thanks so much.

Kerry

You can find a lot of information here on colon club about it. My husband was just diagnosed with stage III rectal cancer, has had surgery and is about to start chemo and radiation. (see 43 y/o recently diagnosed male)

Just keep digging through the posts to find rectal cancer-specific information. The primary difference in the treatment of colon cancer and rectal cancer is whether or not radiation is used. The chemo is essentially the same for both. Radiation whether it is given preop or post op is dependant on several factors, but is standard therapy for rectal cancer, but not for colon cancer. The type of surgery can also differ depending on where the cancer is located.

One of the best sites to look at is the American Cancer Society (ACS) website. It has rectal cancer-specific information and all of what I have just said can be found there.

Tell your friend that there is a lot of good support out here on the colon club site. My husband isn't ready to be out here on the message board yet and I guess he isn't really "in" to that, so I have been out here for him getting all the information I can gather and then sharing it with him.

Good luck!

I have rectal cancer and have found this board very helpfull!

You can also find support on the American Cancer Society website and the forum's, they have one just for colo/rectal, here is the link: http://www.acscsn.org/

God Bless!

If you want to see things from a British point of view (2nd opinion if you like) have a look at www.cancerbackup.co.uk

I have rectal cancer. This board has been a great source of info. Cancercompass.com has a rather informative weekly newsletter. There's also good information on various hospital websights - especially those that are most experienced dealing with colorectal cancer. Look at M.D. Anderson's site, Sloan Kettering, PMC to get started. There's also a very helpful one somewhere in the midwest, but I've forgotten the name. I think if you google "surgery rectal cancer" you'll get some helpful hints.

With rectal cancer, your freind is much more likely to end up with a colostomy. If so, there's a lot of very helpful ostomy info on UOAA.com. Good luck!

When we were researching, we found a lot of information from Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and at Rush in Chicago. My husband's insurance would cover him to go to Cleveland but not Rush in Chicago, so find out about what your insur company will allow.

We ultimately ended up having the surgery in our home town rather than traveling...which was our choice, but both of these centers are highly recommended. We had a couple of friends who went to Cleveland Clinic for things other than colorectal cancer, however they both had very good things to say about CC and got good care there.

Our primary reason for looking at places like CC and Rush were that we were not happy with the answers and options we had in our city, or entire state for that matter. We went to 3 different surgeons - second and third opinions - before we settled on staying here for the surgery. The first sugeon left us with the impression that my husband would end up with a permanent colostomy and when he told his nurse to schedule the surgery he said "schedule mr X for an APR please..." An APR is an abdominoperineal resection - in other words, permanent colostomy. He did not do a scope to see the extact location of the tumor nor did he do a preo CT scan, endorectal ultrasound or get a CEA test. The other two surgeons (who both looked up my husbands bum) told us that at the level the tumor was located that it would be highly unlikely that he would need to end up with a permanent colostomy. (sometimes a temporary colostomy is needed, but gets reversed in a few months after healing). Anyway, what I am getting at is that you don't have to go with the first person that tells you something, and there is NO reason you should not pursue a second or third, or even 4th opinion if you are not comfortable with any aspect of what a doctor tells you. Research and educate yourself - it is your best defense. Best wishes

what's wrong with this site for info and advice?

i had stage 3 colorectal cancer. so it was rectal, but at first everyone just refered to it generically as colon cancer.
i mean, your rectum is essentially a part of the colon....heh.
anywho, i had chemo and radiation, and finally total removal of colon, a nice little 'barbie butt' and a kpouch.

there are lots of options out there, but i think this site and forum are great.

the uoaa.org is a good one. i frequent the 'YODAA' (young ostomates) section of the message boards.

and the j-pouch.org board is really good too.