Careful attention must be paid to avoiding or minimizing side effects, which can include nausea and vomiting, appetite loss, hair loss, and mouth sores. Because chemotherapy can damage the blood-producing cells of the bone marrow, patients may have low blood cell counts. This can result in an increased chance of infection, bleeding or bruising after minor cuts or injuries, and fatigue. If cancer is found, physicians then determine how far it has spread. This process is called staging.
Physicians determine the outlook for recovery and treatment options by the stage of the cancer.
In determining the stage, physicians will look to whether the cancer has spread beyond the wall of the color or recturm and whether the cancer has traveled to other organs. In general, if the cancer is at a lower stage, it is less serious. Cancer is ranked in five stages from stages 0 to IV Stage 0. The cancer is in the earliest stage, not having grown beyond the inner layer of the colon. While the cancer may have grown through the inner layer and into the wall of the colon, it has not spread outside into nearby tissue.