Stage II Colon Cancer
Surgery
You will need surgery to remove the section of colon that contains the tumor and surrounding tissue with its blood vessels and lymph nodes. It could be either:
Open colectomy
When a surgeon makes a long incision in your abdomen so that they can access and remove a portion of your colon.
Laparoscopic colectomy
When a surgeon makes a few small incisions in your abdomen through which they pass a tiny camera and tools to access and remove a portion of your colon.
Chemotherapy
The potential benefits of treatment of node-negative stage 2 colon cancer with chemotherapy after surgery is controversial.
While surgery to remove the tumor in the colon is universally accepted as an initial treatment, the value of chemotherapy after that surgery (adjuvant chemotherapy) to keep cancer from recurring (coming back) has been tested in many trials and the outcome has shown that it does not improve outcomes except in some cases which are judged to carry a higher risk of recurrence.
New techniques such as blood tests looking for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) are being tested to help determine the risk for recurrence, and to help doctors to determine if chemotherapy after surgery may be warranted.
