Our approach to colon cancer treatment
Our comprehensive colon cancer care gives you access to expert medical teams, advanced treatments and holistic support. As Texas's largest hospital-based cancer network, we offer a range of treatment options and resources to create a health plan tailored to your needs.
Today, you have more treatment options for colon cancer than ever before, and our teams continue to advance colon cancer care through innovative research and studies. Guided by our expertise, you can confidently decide the most suitable treatment for you.
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy for colon cancer isn’t a standard colon cancer treatment. It’s more common in rectal cancer care. However, it may be used with chemotherapy, called chemoradiation, for specific cases.
If your care team recommends radiation therapy, you’ll talk about the goals of your specific treatment. Radiation therapy can reduce the size of a tumor before surgery, destroy cancer cells that remain during or after surgery or reduce symptoms of advanced-stage colon cancer.
Types of radiation
During this therapy, your care team uses high-energy beams of radioactive material to help destroy cancer cells. The two main types of radiation are external-beam radiation therapy and brachytherapy.
- External-beam radiation therapy: This therapy delivers radiation from a machine outside the body. It’s the type of radiation used most often in colon cancer treatment.
- Brachytherapy: Also known as internal radiation therapy, brachytherapy delivers radiation via a needle or catheter inside the body.
Colostomy or ileostomy
If you need surgery to remove your colon to treat colon cancer, your care team may talk with you about an ostomy procedure, such as a colostomy or ileostomy.
These procedures reconnect your intestinal tract to an opening in the abdomen called a stoma. Stomas allow stool to pass out of the body into a pouch. When the end of the small intestine is connected to the stoma, it’s called an ileostomy. When the remaining portion of the colon is connected, it’s called a colostomy.
With advances in surgery, many colon cancer surgeries use anastomosis, which reconnects the digestive tract on the inside and eliminates the need for an ostomy. Some people require a temporary colostomy or ileostomy to give their body time to heal. According to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, less than 10% of people who undergo colon cancer surgery will have a permanent colostomy or ileostomy.
If you need a temporary or permanent colostomy or ileostomy, many of our locations provide specially trained ostomy nurses who will equip you with the knowledge to manage your stoma and pouch confidently.
Finding specialized colon cancer treatment
We offer several locations for your care, including specialized colon cancer treatment centers in North and Central Texas
