Honestly , I think there are very few . At a 4 it moves quick . I think the Chemo can actually make other things take place. Not to say that it wont help, because it has some , but I believe it has alot to do what time of Cancer it is and how fast it progresses .
Chemo not only affects bad cells but also some good !!!!!!!!!

Many people answering here give opinions. Here are the facts.

The majority of STAGE 4 COLON CANCER patients have unresectable or widespread disease. Historically, these patients have been considered incurable and were offered treatment with chemotherapy for the purpose of prolonging their survival and alleviating symptoms from progressive cancer. Single-agent fluorouracil chemotherapy with or without leucovorin has been the standard treatment approach for over 30 years. Treatment with fluorouracil chemotherapy regimens induce a remission or shrinkage of the cancer in 15%-45% of patients and the average patient survives approximately 1 year from treatment. .

There are more and more reports by establishment oncologists doubting the value of chemotherapy, even to the point of rejecting it outright. One of these, cancer biostatistician Dr. Ulrich Abel, of Heidelberg, Germany, issued a monograph titled Chemotherapy of Advanced Epithelial Cancer in 1990. Epithelial cancers comprise the most common forms of adenocarcinoma: lung, breast, prostate, colon, etc. After ten years as a statistician in clinical oncology, Abel became increasingly uneasy. "A sober and unprejudiced analysis of the literature," he wrote, "has rarely revealed any therapeutic success by the regimens in question in treating advanced epithelial cancer." While chemotherapy is being used more and more extensively, more than a million people die worldwide of these cancers annually – and a majority have received some form of chemotherapy before dying. Abel further concluded, after polling hundreds of cancer doctors, "The personal view of many oncologists seems to be in striking contrast to communications intended for the public." Abel cited studies that have shown "that many oncologists would not take chemotherapy themselves if they had cancer." (The Cancer Chronicles, December, 1990.)
"Even though toxic drugs often do effect a response, such as a partial or complete shrinkage of the tumor, this reduction does not prolong expected survival," Abel finds. "Sometimes, in fact, the cancer returns more aggressively than before, since the chemo fosters the growth of resistant cell lines." Besides, the chemo has severely damaged the body's own defenses, the immune system and often the kidneys as well as the liver.
In an especially dramatic table, Dr. Abel displays the results of chemotherapy in patients with various types of cancers, as the improvement of survival rates, compared to untreated patients. This table shows:
-In colorectal cancer: No evidence survival is improved.
-Gastric cancer: No clear evidence.
-Pancreatic cancer: Study completely negative. Longer survival in control (untreated) group.
-Bladder: No clinical trial done.
-Breast cancer: No direct evidence that chemotherapy prolongs survival; its use is "ethically questionable."
-Ovarian cancer: No direct evidence.
-Cervix and uterus: No improved survival.
-Head and neck: No survival benefit but occasional shrinkage of tumors.

Frankly, there is more hope in an alternative medicine approach. This website, in particular, stands out as a resource–http://www.geocities.com/cure.cancer/how…

And this one has a great video on the subject–
http://www.altcancer.com/vidgal.htm#hoxs…

"The Cure for All Cancers", ISBN 0963632825
"The Cure for All Advanced Cancers", ISBN 1890035165
"A Cancer Therapy", ISBN 0882681052
"Oxygen Therapies", ISBN 0962052701
"Hydrogen Peroxide–Medical Miracle", ISBN 1885236077
"The Natural Cure for Cancer–Germanium", ISBN 0533071410
"Killing Cancer", ISBN 0705000966
"Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You to Know About", ISBN 0975599518

There are many other good books about surviving this disease, and you should know about this option, even if you choose to go the traditional route with it's abysmal prognosis. Best of luck.

Stage 4 colon cancer (or stage 4 cancer of any type) is usually lethal. Here is an article found discussing mortality rates, and different methods of treatment.

Following surgical removal of colon cancer, a stage IV (D) colon cancer is said to exist if the final evaluation shows that the cancer has spread to distant locations in the body, which may include the liver, lungs, bones, or other sites.

A variety of factors ultimately influence a patient’s decision to receive treatment of cancer. The purpose of receiving cancer treatment may be to improve symptoms through local control of the cancer, increase a patient’s chance of cure, or prolong a patient’s survival. The potential benefits of receiving cancer treatment must be carefully balanced with the potential risks of receiving cancer treatment.

The following is a general overview of the treatment of stage IV colon cancer. Circumstances unique to your situation and prognostic factors of your cancer may ultimately influence how these general treatment principles are applied to your situation. In addition to this treatment overview, the Cancer Treatment News web site feature presents the results of the actual clinical trials that determine the standard treatments of colon cancer and new treatment strategies as they have been discovered and applied by cancer physicians around the world.

All new treatments are evaluated in clinical trials. Participation in a clinical trial may offer access to better treatments and advance the existing knowledge about treatment of this cancer. Remember, this web site information is intended to help educate you about your treatment options and to facilitate a mutual or shared decision-making process with your treating cancer physician.

Patients diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer have been perceived to have few treatment options. Certain patients, however, can still be cured of their cancer, and others derive meaningful benefit from additional treatment. Patients with stage IV colon cancer can be broadly divided into two groups. Those with cancer that is localized to a single site and those with more widespread cancer.

Treatment of Metastatic Colon Cancer to a Single Site

Colon cancer may metastasize to the liver, lung, or other locations. When the site of metastasis is a single organ, such as the liver, and the cancer is confined to a single defined area within the organ, patients may benefit from local treatment directed at that single site of metastasis.

The most common location of metastasis for colon cancer is the liver. Highly selected patients with isolated areas of colon cancer can be cured if the primary cancer in the colon and the isolated area of cancer outside the colon can be surgically removed. Several clinical trials have reported that patients with isolated areas of colon cancer in the liver or lungs can be removed surgically and cured in approximately 25% of circumstances. Surgical removal of cancer can be accomplished with acceptable toxicity, even in community cancer centers, with mortality rates of approximately 2%.

Liver-Directed Therapies

For Patients with disease confined to the liver who are not surgical candidates, several other liver-directed treatments approaches have been developed. The goal of liver-directed therapies are to inject chemotherapy directly into the blood supply of the liver thereby delivering chemotherapy directly to the cancer and/or block the flow of blood to the liver to further "starve" the cancer cells by preventing the necessary blood flow.

Chemotherapy injected directly into the hepatic artery [hepatic artery infusion (HAI)] has the potential advantage of delivering higher doses of anti-cancer therapy directly to the cancer cells in the liver while avoiding the side effects of chemotherapy delivered systemically. Techniques that interrupt blood flow to the cancer cells in the liver can simply block (chemoemobilization) or closes the hepatic artery (hepatic artery ligation). These liver-directed treatment approaches are all highly specialized procedures and when performed by experienced individuals in highly selected patients have produced some encouraging treatment results. In order for these procedures to become widely used, the risk and benefit of liver-directed therapies must outweigh the risk and benefit from standard surgical removal of isolated liver lesions and systemic chemotherapy.

Hepatic Artery Infusion: Hepatic artery infusion has been the most widely evaluated of the liver-directed treatment strategies. The most commonly used chemotherapeutic agent infused into the hepatic artery is FUdR. A clinical study in patients with cancer confined to the liver compared hepatic artery infusion with FUdR to no additional treatment. The study demonstrated that patients treated with hepatic artery infusion survived on average 13.5 months compared to 7.5 months for patients receiving no additional treatment.

Hepatic Artery Infusion and Systemic Chemotherapy: When rectal cancer has spread to the liver, it is likely that cancer may exist elsewhere in the body; therefore, many doctors have advocated giving systemic chemotherapy over hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy directed exclusively to the cancer cells in the liver. Several clinical studies have been performed in patients with cancer metastatic to the liver which compare hepatic artery infusion with FUdR to treatment with systemic 5-fluorouracil-based chemotherapy. An analysis of all these trials together has demonstrated that hepatic artery infusion produces a higher remission rate than systemic chemotherapy; however, the average overall survival is not significantly improved. Patients treated with hepatic artery infusion lived on average 16 months compared to 12 months for patients treated with systemic 5-fluorouracil chemotherapy.

One clinical trial has compared the effectiveness of hepatic artery infusion and systemic infusion of chemotherapy administered into a vein versus systemic infusion chemotherapy alone. Physicians randomly allocated 156 patients with colorectal cancer to two groups. One group received 6 cycles of chemotherapy into the hepatic artery and systemic chemotherapy while the other group only received systemic chemotherapy. The survival was 86% at 2 years for patients receiving treatment with hepatic artery infusion and systemic chemotherapy and 72% for patients receiving systemic chemotherapy alone. The average survival was 72 months for the combined treatment and 59 months for systemic chemotherapy treatment alone. Only 10% of patients receiving combined treatment develop a cancer recurrence compared to 60% of patients receiving the systemic chemotherapy treatment alone. The combined therapy did not lead to an increased mortality.

In summary, for patients with colon cancer isolated to the liver who are unable to undergo surgical removal of the cancer, hepatic artery infusion improves response rates and prolongs survival when compared to no treatment and may produce a minor survival advantage compared to patients treated with systemic 5-fluorouracil chemotherapy.

Treatment of Non-Localized Stage IV Colon Cancer

While some patients have a single site of cancer that can be treated with curative intent, the majority of patients have unresectable or widespread disease. Historically, these patients have been considered incurable and were offered treatment with chemotherapy for the purpose of prolonging their survival and alleviating symptoms from progressive cancer. Single-agent fluorouracil chemotherapy with or without leucovorin has been the standard treatment approach for over 30 years. Treatment with fluorouracil chemotherapy regimens induce a remission or shrinkage of the cancer in 15%-45% of patients and the average patient survives approximately 1 year from treatment.

Recently, several newer chemotherapeutic drugs have demonstrated a substantial ability to kill colon cancer cells in patients with recurrent cancer. Developing and exploring single or multi-agent chemotherapy agents as a treatment approach for patients with widespread colon cancer is an area of active investigation. In particular, the chemotherapy drugs Camptosar® and Oxaliplatin are known to be active drugs for the treatment of patients with colon carcinoma.

In a recent clinical trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the effectiveness and tolerability of Camptosar® was evaluated when used in addition to 5-FU/LV for the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer. Almost 700 patients with advanced colorectal cancer received either: a) the standard combination consisting of 5-FU plus LV; b) Camptosar® plus 5-FU/LV; or c) Camptosar® alone. Half of the patients showed a partial or complete disappearance of cancer following treatment with the combination of Camptosar® and 5-FU/LV compared to only 28% of patients treated with 5-FU/LV alone. Cancer progression was delayed for 7 months in the group of patients receiving the combination of Camptosar® plus 5-FU/LV versus approximately 4 months in the group of patients receiving 5-FU/LV alone. The average survival time for patients receiving Camptosar® plus 5-FU/LV was almost 15 months compared to 12.6 months for patients receiving 5-FU/LV alone. These results demonstrate a significant improvement in overall survival and cancer-free survival following treatment with Camptosar® and 5-FU/LV. Importantly, quality of life for patients was not compromised with the addition of Camptosar®. The researchers concluded that this new regimen should be considered the standard initial treatment option for patients with advanced colorectal cancer.

Strategies to Improve Treatment of Stage IV Colon Cancer

While some progress has been made in the treatment of colon cancer, the majority of patients still succumb to cancer, and better treatment strategies are clearly needed. Future progress in the treatment of colon cancer will result from patients continuing to participate in appropriate clinical trials. Areas of active exploration to improve the treatment of colon cancer include the following:

New Chemotherapy Regimens: Several new chemotherapy drugs show promising activity for the treatment of colon cancer. Camptosar® and other chemotherapy drugs, including Oxaliplatin, continue to be evaluated in clinical trials in combination with other chemotherapy drugs with the hope that this will further improve the treatment of patients with colorectal cancer and new or additional anti-cancer therapies.

Angiogenesis: Angiogenesis, a scientific term for the formation of blood vessels, is crucial to the development of cancer and other diseases that require the formation of new blood vessels to supply them with essential nutrients for growth. Angiogenesis-dependent diseases form new blood vessels by sending out certain proteins, such as VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) that cause endothelial cells within existing nearby blood vessels to proliferate and migrate secreting enzymes called matrix metaproteinases or MMP's, which create an opening in the surrounding matrix, enabling these endothelial cells to form new blood vessels that reach out to the disease.

A substance in the body, called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), plays a crucial role in the progression of cancer by stimulating the new growth of blood vessels. In essence, VEGF stimulates the body to provide a blood supply for a newly developing cancer. Researchers have developed a type of antibody, a recombinant humanized monoclonal antibody called rhuMAb VEGF, that inhibits the effects of VEGF in the body. This monoclonal antibody has now been studied in persons with metastatic colorectal cancer.

Researchers assigned 104 persons with metastatic colorectal cancer to receive treatment with either fluorouracil and leucovorin alone or fluorouracil, leucovorin, and rhuMAb VEGF. Twenty-one percent of those receiving the chemotherapy alone had a response to treatment, compared with 34% of those who also received the rhuMAb VEGF. The average time it took for the cancer to begin growing again (called time to progression) was 5.4 months in those receiving the chemotherapy alone and 6.8 to 7.3 months in those also receiving the rhuMAb VEGF. RhuMAb VEGF and other anti-angiogenesis components are being evaluated alone or in combination with chemotherapy.

Liver-Directed Therapies: Continued development and refinement of hepatic artery infusion, chemoembolization, and other liver-directed therapies is ongoing. For patients with liver dominant disease, these strategies are being utilized to shrink the cancer and increase the number of patients eligible for surgical removal of their cancer

Biological Modifier Therapy: Biologic response modifiers are naturally occurring or synthesized substances that direct, facilitate, or enhance your body's normal immune defenses. Biologic response modifiers include interferons, interleukins, vaccines and monoclonal antibodies. In an attempt to improve survival rates these and other agents are being tested alone or in combination with chemotherapy in clinical trials.

Monoclonal Antibodies: Another approach is to deliver additional treatment directed specifically to the cancer cells and avoid harming the normal cells. Monoclonal antibodies are a treatment that can locate cancer cells and kill them directly. Monoclonal antibodies are being evaluated alone or in combination with chemotherapy to determine whether they can improve cure rates. The 17-IA monoclonal antibody has been shown to improve survival in patients with colorectal cancer in Germany. Although not available in the United States, clinical trials are ongoing throughout the world to further evaluate the 17-IA monoclonal antibody.

Vaccines: The purpose of a vaccine is to help the patients immune system destroy the cancer by activating the patients immune cells against the cancer. Vaccines are made from a variety of substances that often include the actual cancer cells removed from the patient. A difficulty in preparing vaccines is that the patients cancer cells must be processed immediately following surgery. Patients and their surgeon must therefore prepare in advance to ensure the removed cancer cells can be handled properly for vaccine preparation. Vaccines have already been shown to improve the survival of certain patients with colorectal cancer and continue to be evaluated in clinical trials.

Phase I Trials: New chemotherapy drugs continue to be developed and evaluated in patients with recurrent cancers in phase I clinical trials. The purpose of phase I trials is to evaluate new drugs in order to determine the best way of administering the drug and whether the drug has any anti-cancer activity in patients.

Oral Chemotherapy Agents: Several new chemotherapy agents are being developed that can be taken orally. The most common are the fluoropyramidines, which may provide the same or greater benefit as intravenous fluorouracil without requiring intravenous administration.

How many people actually survive stage 4 colon cancer even with treatment?

Tags: monograph, personal view, Colon Cancer

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