A new method can potentially prevent bowel cancer patients from needing colostomy bags. Cancer doctors said the new CReST trial necessitates an expandable tube inserted into the location of a patient's blockage.
The tube, also called stent, was presented by experts at the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology, or ASCO, in Chicago last week. The stent measures only 3mm in diameter when inserted into the site of the blockage with the help of an endoscope. After 48 hours, however, the tube inflates up to 2.5cm in diameter (around eight times bigger) as it adjusts to a person's body heat, BBC reported.
Thanks to the stent, the patient's passageway through his/her intestines is open and the bowel contents can freely pass. Surgeons will be able to remove the patient's tumor after the blockage disappears and the bowels have healed.
How Stents Compare With Emergency Surgery
Bowel cancer is often undetected until the tumor blocks a patient's intestines. This leaves surgeons choosing to perform emergency surgery, which has higher chances of resulting in complications than the more common routine surgery. Twelve percent of patients who undergo emergency bowel surgery die due to the procedure.
Moreover, 69 percent of emergency surgery patients had to use colostomy bags for the disposal of their feces. For patients who had stents, only 45 percent have to use colostomy bags.
Around 65,000 patients in the United Kingdom have a colostomy, according to the Colostomy Association UK. For a colostomy, surgeons bring out a patient's colon through a visible opening on the abdomen called stoma, which is pink and moist in appearance. A small pouch, or a colostomy bag, is then positioned over the stoma to collect feces and bowel products that should be passing through the rectum and anus.
Benefits Of Stents
James Hill, leader of the CReST trial and is a professor at the Central Manchester University Hospital, mentioned doctors' belief that using stents could further spread a patient's cancer. Hill, however, argued that the trial's early results don't demonstrate further cancer spread. In fact, they think that stents will be able to lessen the use of colostomy bags after emergency surgeries, Cancer Research UK reported.
Hill said they need to do a three-year follow-up for the CReST trial. Martin Ledwick, Cancer Research UK's head information nurse, said stent treatment isn't compatible with every patient. However, it has high chances of improving a patient's quality of life, given that living with colostomy bags attached to their bodies can be a source of stress for bowel cancer patients.
