The first thing to know about bowel cancer treatment in Germany is that it’s more effective here than in most other countries worldwide. Oncology is a high-tech field of medicine requiring good funding. German hospitals receive excellent support, use advanced equipment, and employ innovative techniques. Doctors achieve good results at all stages of colorectal cancer, even in the advanced stage. If you want to go abroad for treatment, you should visit the Booking Health website. It features the best hospitals for colon cancer treatment in Germany.
Why It’s Better to Treat Bowel Cancer in Germany
Due to the use of innovative methods, treatment in Germany is more sparing in the early stages and more effective in the advanced stages.
Most countries have organized bowel cancer screening, so most cases are detected at a curable stage. Patients only require surgery at stages I-II; adjuvant (post-operative) treatment is usually not performed. The standard of treatment is considered to be open surgery to remove part of the colon. However, in German hospitals, laparoscopic surgery is often used: the operation is performed through several short incisions, which reduces the trauma of the intervention and ensures faster recovery. Such surgery is safer for health and reduces postoperative discomfort for patients.
If bowel cancer is not diagnosed in time, it reaches advanced stages. Metastases in the liver often appear, or the tumor spreads through the peritoneum. It can block the intestine, and surgery has to be performed against the background of intestinal obstruction.
Even in such situations, German oncology centers achieve good results in treating cancer. Surgical operations are still performed for metastatic cancer, although they become much more complex. Doctors can simultaneously remove tumors in different parts of the body or perform resection of all tumor foci in the abdominal cavity.
In advanced clinics, various options for intraperitoneal chemotherapy are used at the last stage of cancer: this is when chemotherapy drugs are not administered intravenously but delivered to the peritoneal cavity, where they act directly on cancer tumors without causing significant systemic (general) toxicity.
After tumor removal operations, doctors perform:
- Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HYPEC). Doctors irrigate the abdominal cavity with a heated solution of chemotherapy drugs to destroy the remaining cancer cells and small tumors.
- Pressurized intraperitoneal aerosol chemotherapy (PIPAC) is a minimally invasive treatment method used in inoperable patients. It helps control tumor growth in the long term and eliminates ascites, which is fluid accumulation in the abdominal cavity.
In the last stage, colon cancer often metastasizes to the liver. Chemoembolization is used in Germany to destroy metastases in this area. Doctors block blood vessels feeding the tumor with small balls containing chemotherapy drugs (drug-eluting microspheres). As a result, metastatic tumors die due to lack of blood supply, while the primary intestinal tumor can be removed surgically.
How to Choose a Hospital for Colon Cancer Treatment
The stage of your cancer and the type of treatment you require will determine which hospital you choose. At an early stage, doctors in almost any German clinic can cope with the disease. If the pathology is detected at stage 4, you will need the help of the best specialists, as complex operations and procedures are necessary.
You can find the world’s best hospitals on the Booking Health website, including German university hospitals. At universities, they conduct not only clinical but also scientific activities. These hospitals apply advanced techniques and receive maximum support. They are all certified by authoritative medical societies.
The Booking Health website provides a complete list of clinics that treat bowel cancer. Prices for medical services are also indicated here. Choose a clinic from the top of the list, as the service automatically sorts them by rating. You can receive a consultation and assistance organizing your trip by leaving a request on the site.
This is a sponsored post by Booking Health GmbH. All reviews and opinions expressed in this post are not based on the views and opinions of Tomorrow’s World Today.