Research carried out by Edward A. Levine, M.D., professor of surgery and chief of the surgical oncology service at Wake Forest Baptist has demonstrated through longterm gene analysis that cancer of the appendix, which affects about 2,500 people each year in the US, differs markedly from colon cancer, and that treatments for the two should therefore be different.
Cancer of the appendix can and often does spread throughout the peritoneal cavity (the space within the abdomen that contains the intestines, stomach and liver).
Since the appendix is part of the colon, treatment for one has generally been considered adequate for the other.
However, Dr. Levine's research, which appears in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, shows that the genes that are active in cancer of the appendix and genes that are active in colon cancer are not the same, and that new treatment regimens need to be explored to properly address cancers of the appendix.
Source: Medical News Today
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