The common type of colon cancer is adenocarcinoma or mucinous adenocarcinoma, both of which are prone to lymph node metastasis. Depending on how far and how much metastasis is present, survival time varies relatively widely and can range from weeks to years.
In the relatively early stages of colon cancer, metastasis occurs primarily to the lymph nodes surrounding the tumor, with distant lymph node metastasis occurring later. If only the peripheral lymph nodes metastasize, surgical treatment can be done to remove the tumor while doing the clearance of the peripheral lymph nodes. The prognosis is relatively good, with survival time mostly 2-5 years, and there is a possibility of survival to more than 5 years.
If there are extensive lymph node metastases that cannot be treated surgically, then chemotherapy or radiation therapy can be done. These methods have a suppressive effect on the tumor, but are hardly curative, and survival is mostly less than a year, and may even be life-threatening within days to weeks.
The discovery of lymph node metastasis in colon cancer is mostly in the middle stage of the tumor, between early and late stage, and with aggressive treatment, the survival time is mostly between 1-2 years. Without aggressive treatment, the tumor will progress more rapidly and survival time is hardly more than one year.