Finding Purpose After Cancer
- Country music star Wade Hayes, 54, says he was recommended for immediate palliative care after a large tumor discovered on his intestine was causing abdominal pain and rectal bleeding. Despite some doctors thinking Hayes’ stage 4 colon cancer was untreatable, the singer got another medical opinion, which led him to an oncologist who helped him reach remission after surgery and chemotherapy treatment.
- There are three main approaches to surgery for colon cancer: open surgery, laparoscopic surgery, and robotic surgery. Open surgery involves a big incision through the stomach and removing the tumor. Less invasive procedures (laparoscopic & robotic) make smaller incisions.
- Chemotherapy for colon cancer patients can occur after initial surgery and can help minimize recurrence. However, patients may experience side effects due to its toxicity. Common chemo side effects may include things like fatigue or nausea.
- Palliative care involves treatments to manage cancer symptoms and treatment side effects. This holistic approach also addresses the emotional stress of living with cancer. This type of care differs from end-of-life or hospice care, which focuses solely on comfort and doesn’t involve treatments.
- Most colon cancers can be prevented if people are regularly screened. The screening usually involves a colonoscopy, in which a long, thin tube attached to a camera examines the colon and rectum. If no polyps are discovered, the following screening won’t be needed for ten years.
- The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, the American Cancer Society, and the American Gastrointestinal Association recommend colorectal cancer screening begin at age 45. However, if you are at higher risk because of a family history of the disease, talk with your doctor about screening sooner.
Country music singer Wade Hayes, 54, believes it’s his duty to spread the word on cancer awareness in the wake of his own cancer journey, where he was recommended palliative care for his cancer because the first set of doctors he saw thought his advanced colon cancer was untreatable.
However, the “Old Enough to Know Better” singer found hope in one oncologist who believed he had a fighting chance, and that kickstarted his road to recovery.
“When we found out that I had cancer, the doctor told me that my tumor was so large on my intestines that I had cancer for years before I knew it,” Hayes said while speaking to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance.
“Every weekend, I’m talking to somebody about cancer…It’s part of my job now. My life was spared for a reason; I’m still trying to figure that out because when I was initially diagnosed, and they found out how bad I had it, they were going to put me in comfort care,” he explained.
Hayes was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer at 42 years old. Stage 4 cancer means the cancer has spread beyond the colon and into other parts of the body.
When Hayes mentions “comfort care” for his stage 4 cancer, he is most likely referring to palliative care. Palliative care is all about trying to improve the quality of life for a patient and family by providing relief from the symptoms and stress of the disease.
“When you know that you’re losing the battle against cancer, you have to make sure you prepare for the worst,” says Dr. Raja Flores, chairman of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Hayes’ cancer journey took a different turn than the first set of doctors envisioned. A friend of Hayes introduced him to an oncologist at Vanderbilt who helped the country music star fight harder.
“Dr. Jordan Berlin fought for my life literally, and they decided on his word to go ahead and try his route,” Hayes said.
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Hayes’ Colon Cancer Treatment
Hayes said he underwent “several surgeries and a lot of chemotherapy” to reach remission from colon cancer.
There are three main approaches to surgery for colon cancer: open surgery, laparoscopic surgery, and robotic surgery. During open surgery, the surgeon makes a big incision through the stomach and focuses on the tumor to remove it.
There are also what are called “minimally invasive” approaches, which can be broken up into laparoscopic or robotic surgery.
“Laparoscopic surgery is when we’re able to make various small incisions, and with specialized instruments, we’re able to remove the mass, reconnect you, and pull the specimen out of a bigger incision about this big. What I tell patients is that for colon cancer, laparoscopic surgery is equal to open surgery when done correctly. To me, this is one of the best ways to do it because you minimize the incisions,” Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Colorectal Surgeon Dr. Zuri Murrell explains to SurvivorNet.
WATCH: Approaching Colon Cancer Surgery
Surgeons favor the robot because it allows better magnification of the surgery, which could reduce complications. Both laparoscopic and robotic surgery use small incisions, which make the surgery less painful.
The tumor’s location within the colon can dictate the type of colon cancer surgery that is performed. If the tumor is located on the right side of the colon, also known as the ascending colon, then a right colectomy is performed. For tumors located in the descending colon, a left colectomy is performed. The sigmoid colon is a portion of the descending colon that gets its name because it has an “S” shape, and in such cases, a sigmoid colectomy is done to remove the cancer in this area.
After a portion of the colon is removed, the two ends of the colon are put back together. Most patients will have some irregularity in the bowel function immediately after surgery, but this will ultimately return to normal.
RELATED: Choosing the Right Colon Cancer Surgeon.
Chemo for Colon Cancer
Hayes says he also received chemotherapy to help treat his stage 4 colon cancer. Remember, stage 4 means the cancer has spread. One area colon cancer can metastasize (spread) to is the peritoneum, or the lining of your abdominal cavity. A treatment option for peritoneal disease is a surgical procedure called cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). This operation involves two parts: cytoreductive surgery, which involves the removal of the tumor, and then HIPEC, which involves putting heated chemotherapy into the abdominal cavity. The goal of this operation is to remove visible tumors surgically and then use chemotherapy to target the cancer cells that remain in the peritoneal cavity. This is just a treatment option that should be thoroughly discussed with your doctor. We should note that we do not have specific details regarding the type of surgery and chemotherapy Hayes received.
Chemotherapy is a treatment option for colon cancer patients who experience recurrence.
If you have never had chemotherapy before, your medical oncologist will most likely recommend FOLFOX. FOLFOX is an abbreviation for a combination chemotherapy regimen that is used to treat colorectal cancer. It includes the drugs leucovorin calcium (folinic acid), fluorouracil, and oxaliplatin.
Other chemotherapy options can be used depending on the tumor properties and the location of the recurrences.
Another option you may hear about is FOLFIRI. FOLFIRI is a chemotherapy regimen that includes the drugs leucovorin calcium (folinic acid), fluorouracil, and irinotecan hydrochloride.
This regimen includes another chemotherapy agent, irinotecan. It is used less often than FOLFOX because it has more side effects without significantly improving survival. However, FOLFIRI or other chemotherapy drugs may be appropriate depending on the patient or the specific characteristics of the tumor.
“FOLFOX is still the chemotherapy that they’re treated with upfront. There are a couple of other variations. There is one called FOLFIRI, which adds a drug called Irinotecan. Irinotecan is a good drug, but it’s also a drug with much more toxicity,” colorectal surgeon at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center Dr. Heather Yeo explained.
“So, the patients that get Irinotecan actually have many more symptoms and have a little bit harder chemotherapy course. The reason that Irinotecan is not a first-line drug is because, when compared to FOLFOX, it didn’t really improve survival for first-line, and patients actually had more toxicity. If that cancer doesn’t move aggressively if the chemotherapy keeps it in the space that it is or even shrinks it down, we can actually take out those spots,” Dr. Yeo continued.
Expert Resources for Colon Cancer Screening
- Colon Cancer Screening Options And Genetics: Myth Busting With Dr. Heather Yeo
- Colon Cancer Screening is Extremely Important; Guidelines Now Say to Start at Age 45 if There Is No Family History
- Everything You Need to Know About Colorectal Cancer Screenings
- Colorectal Cancer Screening: a New Study Questions the Effectiveness of Colonoscopies But Specialists Reinforce its Importance
Power of Faith
Hayes credits his faith in God for helping his cancer journey toward a favorable outcome and calls it “truly a miracle.”
Having faith can help keep your spirits high even during times of struggle. SurvivorNet experts also say it helps cancer patients during their cancer journeys.
New York City Presbyterian Pastor Tom Evans previously shared with SurvivorNet about the importance of finding ways to cope with the complex web of feelings you may be experiencing after a challenging health diagnosis, such as cancer or a threatening tumor.
“It’s important to reach out in a simple prayer to God, even if you’ve never prayed before, you don’t know what to say, a heartfelt plea, ‘God, help me, be with me,'” Pastor Evans told SurvivorNet.
“You can reach out to God, and you can reach out to people, your friends and family, and say, ‘I can’t do this on my own. I need you.’ “It’s in that willingness to be open and to receive that we can find something deeper that we never would’ve encountered without this hardship,” Evans continued.
WATCH: Turning to Faith During a Cancer Journey.
A study published in Cancer includes data that found “69% of cancer patients reported praying for their health” compared to “only 45% of the general U.S. population.”
Cancer psychologist Dr. Andrew Kneier helped co-author “Coping with Cancer: Ten Steps toward Emotional Well-Being.” He also co-authored a column published by Stanford Medicine with Rabbi Jeffery M. Silberman, director of spiritual care at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut.
The two add more context to the impact faith has on cancer patients.
“A person’s faith or spirituality provides a means for coping with illness and reaching a deeper kind of inner healing,” Kneier and Silberman said.
“Coping means different things to different people: it can involve finding answers to the questions that illness raises, seeking comfort for the fears and pain that illness brings, and learning how to find a sense of direction at a time of illness. Religious teachings can help a person cope in all these dimensions,” Kneier and Silberman continued.
Understanding the Signs of Colon Cancer
Colon cancer starts when polyps grow in the colon or rectum. If you don’t have these polyps removed, they can sometimes change into cancer. It takes up to 10 years for a colon polyp to become full-blown cancer, according to SurvivorNet experts.
“We know that colon cancers can be prevented when polyps are found early, Dr. Heather Yeo, a colorectal cancer surgeon at Weill Cornell Medicine, told SurvivorNet.
The American Cancer Society and the American Gastrointestinal Association recommend that colorectal screening begin at age 45. However, it would be best to discuss your screening timeline with your doctor.
Colon cancer symptoms and warning signs include:
- Change in bowel movement
- Bloody stool
- Diarrhea, constipation, or feeling the bowel does not empty completely
- Unexplained weight loss
- Constant abdominal pain or cramps
If you notice symptoms or changes in your body, you should discuss them with your doctor promptly.
Colon Cancer Prevention
Most colon cancers can be prevented if people are regularly screened. The screening usually involves a colonoscopy, in which a long, thin tube attached to a camera examines the colon and rectum. If no polyps are discovered, the following screening won’t be needed for ten years.
“We know that colon cancers can be prevented when polyps are found early,” Dr. Heather Yeo told SurvivorNet. “Lowering the screening age helps somewhat with this, but access to care is a real problem,” Yeo added.
The American Gastrointestinal Association lowered the recommended initial age for a colorectal screening from 50 to 45.
What is a Colonoscopy?
A colonoscopy is a procedure doctors use to screen for colon cancer by looking inside your colon.
This procedure requires your colon to be “cleaned out. To clear out your colon, your doctor will prescribe a “bowel prep, which is a liquid you drink the night before the procedure. The prep acts as a laxative that causes you to have multiple loose stools before your procedure.
Once your colon is cleared out, the gastroenterologist can examine it for polyps, a small group of cells on the colon’s lining.
Depending on the size and number of polyps found, it is recommended that patients undergo a repeat colonoscopy within three to five years.
At-home stool tests are also available to screen for colon cancer. However, our experts warn that they are not as effective as colonoscopies.
A study published in 2014 in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the Cologuard test, for example, missed more than 30% of polyps that will soon become cancer and 57% of polyps that may become cancer.
The advantage of a colonoscopy is that your doctor can remove any polyps found during the test. Many colon cancers can be caught on colonoscopy before they develop or when the polyps are small enough to be removed without surgery.
What are Colon Polyps?
A colon polyp is a small group of cells that forms on the colon’s lining.
When you have a colonoscopy, the gastroenterologist looks for polyps inside your intestine. Although polyps can’t be felt, screening tests can detect them before they cause a problem, such as colon or rectal (colorectal) cancer.
Almost all polyps found and removed during a colonoscopy are precancerous, meaning that they have not yet progressed to cancer.
Questions to Ask Your Doctor
If you are facing a colon cancer diagnosis, here are some questions you may ask your doctor.
- What are my treatment options based on my diagnosis?
- If I’m worried about managing the costs of cancer care, who can help me?
- What support services are available to me? To my family?
- Could this treatment affect my sex life? If so, how and for how long?
- What are the risks and possible side effects of treatment?
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