How Bad Is Colorectal Cancer?

I recently had a colonoscopy and the doctor collected some suspicious cells. It looks as if I have colon polyps, but the test results haven’t come back yet. I don’t know anything about colon cancer. How bad is it?

Recovery from colon cancer depends on the extent of your disease before your surgery.

• If your tumor is limited to the inner layers of your colon, you can expect to live free of cancer recurrence five years or more 80%-95% of the time depending on how deeply the cancer was found to invade into the wall.
• If cancer has spread to your lymph nodes adjacent to the colon, the chance of living cancer free for five years is 30%-65% depending upon the depth of invasion of the primary tumor and the numbers of nodes found to have been invaded by colon cancer cells.
• If the cancer has already spread to other organs, the chance of living five years drops to 8%.
• If the cancer has reached your liver but no other organs, removing part of your liver may prolong your life with as many as 20%-40% of patients living cancer free for five years after such surgery.