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Stage 3 colorectal cancer means cancer has spread beyond the outer muscle layer of the colon and possibly to nearby lymph nodes, but not to other organs. Treatment options include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.
There are four stages of colorectal cancer and stage 3 is among the most severe. When a person has stage 3 colorectal cancer, it means that they have cancer of the part of the intestine called the colon or rectum, and the diseased cells have spread beyond the part of the intestine where the cancer. Stage 3 colorectal cancer means that the cancerous cells have spread beyond the outer muscle layer of the colon and perhaps to nearby lymph nodes, but have yet to progress to other organs in the body.
The stages of colorectal cancer begin with stage 0 and extend to stage 4. Stages indicate how far the cancer has progressed or spread, with stage 0 being a very early stage of cancer and stage 4 it is the most serious. Doctors also use staging to determine which courses of treatment will prove best for their patients. For example, a person with stage 4 colorectal cancer may benefit from treatments such as surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, while a person with stage 0 colorectal cancer may only need surgery.
When a person has stage 3 colorectal cancer, the cancer has progressed outside the inner wall of the colon or rectum to which it was confined in the early stages of the disease. Once the cancer reached this stage, it moved through a muscle layer of the intestine called the muscularis propria and began affecting the outer layers of the patient’s colon or rectum. While the cancer in this stage has moved to the outermost layer, it hasn’t gone any further. Other organs in the body are not yet affected at this stage, although the cancer may have spread to nearby lymph nodes.
The fact that stage 3 colorectal cancer has not yet reached other organs in the body is an important consideration. When the cancer is confined to one part of the body, it is easier to treat and patient diagnosis is better than in stage 4, when the cancer invades other tissues and organs in the body. However, stage 3 colorectal cancer is very serious and associated with a worse prognosis than earlier stages of this type of cancer.
Treatment for stage 3 colorectal cancer can include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments. Surgery is typically used to remove diseased parts of the colon or rectum. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are used to destroy cancer cells.
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