Radiation And Chemotherapy: Preventing And Treating Colorectal Cancer
Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School
Radiation and chemotherapy
In addition to surgery, some people with colorectal cancer also need adjuvant therapy, which may involve chemotherapy (anticancer medication) or a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The purpose of adjuvant therapy is to destroy any cancer cells that remain after surgery in order to prevent cancer from spreading or recurring. For rectal cancer, adjuvant therapy is sometimes used before surgery to shrink a tumor so that it is possible to have surgery that leaves the anal sphincter intact, eliminating the need for a colostomy.
Radiation therapy is the use of low-level radiation directed at the cancer site to kill cancer cells. Radiation is used primarily for patients with rectal cancer. It's rarely used for colon cancer. Chemotherapy is a systemwide drug treatment given by injection or infusion and is intended to kill cancer cells throughout the body. Whether you will need chemotherapy, radiation, or both depends on the type of cancer you have and its stage. This section describes the use of these therapies to cure cancer that has not spread. (For information on metastatic cancer regimens, see "Metastatic cancer.")
| Last updated: | April 09, 2009 |
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Medical content reviewed by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School. Harvard Health Publications, Copyright © 2007 by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Used with permission of StayWell.
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