This handy, reassuring guide helps recently diagnosed patients answer pressing questions, such as: How far advanced is the disease? What tests are involved? What treatments will be recommended? This fully updated third edition is a quick, reliable reference that helps decipher confusing and intimidating medical jargon and explains the most current procedures and treatment options. Among these are the increasingly popular trend of using chemotherapy and radiation prior to surgery, targeted therapies involving newer drugs that limit their focus to the cancer cells, the use of laparoscopic surgery, and latest approaches in radiation therapy, chemotherapy drugs, and immunotherapy. This work also reviews symptoms and risk factors for colon cancer, how the disease may be prevented, and pros and cons of various treatments.


Paul Ruggieri, M.D. is a board-certified general surgeon in private practice in southeastern Massachusetts. After his medical training, Dr. Ruggieri joined the Army, where he rose to the rank of major, received the Army Commendation and Meritorious Service Medals, and became the chief of the department of surgery. Dr. Ruggieri is the co-author of A Simple Guide to Thyroid Disorders and the author of The Surgery Handbook. Addison R. Tolentino, M.D., is a medical oncologist and hematologist with the Avera Medical Group Oncology and Hematology in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.