Treatment of Stage II Colorectal Cancer

Stage II colorectal cancers are cancers that have developed through the full thickness of the colon wall but have not yet spread to the lymph nodes or any other distant site. This is considered an early stage of cancer and the outcomes from treatment are very favorable. The gold standard of treatment is surgical resection of the tumor. The surgical treatment may be performed as an open procedure or laparoscopically (ie. keyhole surgery). The most important feature of the surgery is that the margins of resection show no evidence of cancer, meaning that the surgeon removed all of the tumor

Preoperative chemoradiation therapy plays a role in some stage II cancers if they are in the rectum. Patients may receive approximately 5 week course of this therapy to shrink the tumor which often increased the success of the surgery that follows. The use of chemotherapy in stage II colon cancer is controversial and is not the standard of care at this point in time so most patients with stage II colon cancer will not receive chemotherapy unless they are enrolled in a clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of chemotherapy.

Most patients with this stage of cancer are cured after undergoing treatment.