Colon cancer surgery is the main treatment for early-stage colon cancers. For cancers that have spread, surgery also plays a major role in providing the best possible outcomes.
At Penn Medicine, our experienced colorectal surgeons are skilled in procedures that treat every stage of colon cancer. They partner with doctors in other specialties, including medical oncology, to provide you with personalized care plans that consider your whole health.
Colon Cancer Surgery: Why Choose the Abramson Cancer Center?
Our board-certified colorectal surgeons have special expertise in the treatment of colon cancer. Their decades of experience and superior training help our patients experience better outcomes — even in complicated cases.
We also offer:
- Team-based care: Our colorectal doctors are part of a medical team that includes nationally renowned experts in surgery, medical oncology, gastroenterology, radiology and pathology. Constant communication and regular meetings allow these experts to work as one unit when planning and providing your care. You benefit from the expertise of the entire team.
- Minimally invasive options: Our colon and rectal surgeons are skilled in minimally invasive techniques to remove colon cancers. Minimally invasive surgery, such as laparoscopic and robotic procedures, involves tiny incisions. Patients often experience less pain, a shorter hospital stay and an earlier return to the activities they love.
- Advanced treatments: Coming to a world-class cancer center like ours gives you access to the latest colon cancer treatments through clinical trials. These may even include advanced treatments that are not yet widely available.
- Faster recoveries: Our enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocols use evidence-based methods to manage the recovery process. These protocols help our patients experience easier recoveries, shorter hospital stays and a lower risk for complications after surgery.
- Prehab before surgery: We set you up for success before surgery in our Cancer Appetite and Rehabilitation (CARE) Clinic. To get you healthy enough to go through surgery or reduce your risk factors for surgical complications, the CARE team provides personalized care to optimize your health, including nutrition counseling and physical therapy.
- Side effect management: Sometimes cancer treatments leave you dealing with side effects. The cancer itself can also cause unpleasant symptoms. Our Palliative Care Program provides supportive care through pain and symptom management, psychological services and more. Our goal is to make you more comfortable before, during and after treatment and enhance your quality of life.
- Seamless care: Our skilled nurse navigators have special expertise in the care of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers like colon cancer. They serve as your point of contact and help guide you through our health care system. They also make your care less stressful by coordinating your appointments and answering your questions and concerns. Meet the oncology nurse navigators.
Types of Colon Cancer Surgery
We provide comprehensive colon cancer surgery options, including minimally invasive procedures. The size, stage and location of the tumor often determine the procedure we recommend. Sometimes, we confirm your diagnosis and tumor stage through surgery, as well.
Read more about:
Polypectomy and Local Excisions
Colorectal doctors can perform polypectomies and local excisions during routine colonoscopies. They access early-stage cancers and colon polyps by inserting a long, flexible tube (colonoscope) into the colon via the rectum. Most polyps are harmless, but some can become cancer.
During a polypectomy, your colon cancer surgeon removes any polyps from the wall of the colon. During a local excision, the surgeon removes the cancer and a small amount of healthy surrounding tissue, called a margin.
Colectomy
During a colectomy, your surgeon removes all or part of the colon along with nearby lymph nodes:
- Segmented colon resection: This procedure is also called a hemicolectomy or partial colectomy. Surgeons remove the part of the colon where the tumor is. Then they attach the remaining colon sections together.
- Total colectomy: This procedure removes the entire colon. Doctors don't do total colectomies unless there are problems in the areas of the colon that do not have cancer.
Diverting Colostomy
If tumors are blocking the colon, your doctor may recommend a diverting colostomy. During this procedure, the surgeon removes only the tumor. The surgeon does this by:
- Making an incision above the section of the colon that has the tumor
- Attaching the top section of the colon to a surgically made opening in your abdomen (stoma)
- Attaching a small bag to the stoma to collect stool
Metastatic colon cancer is colon cancer that has spread beyond the colon to other organs, often the liver or lungs. We may recommend surgery to remove these liver or lung tumors, along with the colon cancer.
For these complex situations, our colorectal, gastrointestinal and thoracic surgeons work closely together, sometimes during the same operation, to provide coordinated care. Our surgeons also team up with our medical oncologists to optimize the timing of surgeries with needed chemotherapy treatments.
Learn more about lung cancer surgery and liver resection in our high-volume programs.
Hepatic Infusion Pump Implantation
You may also receive a hepatic artery infusion pump during metastatic colon cancer surgery. These pumps are about the size of a hockey puck. They provide concentrated doses of chemotherapy directly to any metastatic colon cancers in the liver.
This treatment provides an additional option for patients who are not responding to traditional chemotherapy treatments. It can also prevent cancer recurrence (when cancer returns). We are the only medical center in the Philadelphia region that offers hepatic artery infusion pumps.
Request an Appointment
Call 800-789-7366 or request a callback.