Colon Cancer in Women Over 60

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Your age may be one of issues that your doctor concern when deciding the treatments. But it is not the only one.

Even though if you are a senior woman (over 60) with colon cancer, the treatment is usually necessary! Your doctor will take into account your overall health more than your age in making the treatment plan.

Age is usually equivalent with health, but it is not always! Even in a few cases, some seniors are fit enough to cope with the cancer and its treatments.

Surgery is one of the treatment options for colon cancer, particularly true if your doctor believe that it can completely remove the cancer.

Surgery can be the priority choice if the cancer doesn’t spread so thus it is likely to be successfully removed and treated. If it has spread, surgery can also be recommended if there are only one or two secondary cancers in other parts of the body.

Surgery is less likely to be recommended when there are too many cancer cells that have spread to other parts of the body. For such case, non-surgical treatments such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy are usually the main choices.

And before taking any cancer treatment (including surgery), you should be fully aware about the benefits and risks of the treatment! Your doctor should discuss this issue before you take the treatment!

Your doctor usually will take into account any health conditions that you are having when making the treatment plan. For instance, if you have a cardiovascular disease, you may be unable to take general anesthetic, and this can limit the kinds of surgery you can take.

Some treatments may also be relatively unsafe for seniors. But there is usually an alternative option.

For example, some chemo medicines are more likely to cause serious side effects for seniors so thus your doctor may not recommend them! But there are other chemo medicines that you can take more safely.