colon ca spread to lymph nodes

[gavin042908]

a friend of mine has colon ca, had surgery & is now having chemo. i was told it was stage iv, but according to what i have read, it is stage iii. it had spread to lymph nodes. what is survival rate for someone with a very optimistic attitude? thank you, gavin

[gena21]

my mom had colon cancer they did surgery she also had it in 9 of her lymphnodes.the dr said 6 months to a year but as far as we no the cancer is on stand still she is also 72 yts old what do you think her life span might be?

[HeinrikMD]

Hi,

There is occasionally some confusion when the extent of disease is discussed. The lymph nodes are a site of cancer spread, so occasionally the terms metastasis to the lymph nodes may be used. Some people think that any metastasis constitutes stage 4 disease, but you are correct that the metastasis has to be distant and hence, if it is at most involving the lymph nodes, then it is likely stage 3 disease.
The answer to your question depends on how many nodes are involved. If it is only few, the 5 year estimates are around 83%, for extensive node involvement it may be around 44%.
The estimates are general, I can't really give specific data for optimistic people, but I would say that chemotherapy seems to be improving outcomes of some stage 3 groups more than the stage 2 groups (so for some cases, it may be better to be stage 3 than stage 2), hence chemotherapy is a good step to consider. And people with a positive attitude tend to do better than people who will be so negative as to see only the side effects of the treatment they are undergoing.
I wish your friend the best. Stay positive.