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If they are detected and removed early during a colonoscopy, cancer can be prevented.Once detected, colon cancer is generally treated by surgery and chemotherapy, Miletello said.

Radiation is not used very often except for some cases of rectal cancer and other cases where the cancer has spread to the bone.There are six drugs commonly used to treat colon cancer today, where there was only one a decade ago.

Avastin, a biologic agent to target cancer cells specifically, was approved a year ago and is tripling response rates in colon cancer patients.

Most of the standard chemotherapy agents still cause side effects in many patients, but administration of antinausea and antidiarrheal medications and others helps control or minimize many reactions.For those patients whose cancer has metabolized to the liver, two new treatments are available.

They are radiofrequency ablation, which uses electrical currents to destroy the tumor, and implantation of a radioactive isotope (yttrium) to do the same thing.Also in development are a new vaccine to boost immune system response, and the use of biologic agents to prevent colon cancer or its recurrence.

Miletello said his office is particip...

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