Colorectal cancer treatment in Istanbul
Every colorectal cancer treatment option available through OncologyIstanbul, with named doctors who treat it, itemized Istanbul prices compared with Germany, and a free 72-hour tumor-board second opinion before any decision.
Get a free colorectal cancer second opinion →How colorectal cancer is diagnosed and treated
Colorectal cancer is staged from 0 to IV using the TNM system, based on how deeply the tumor invades the bowel wall, lymph-node involvement, and distant spread. Two biomarker tests — MSI-H/dMMR status — are now standard at diagnosis, since they affect which standard modalities apply.
- Diagnosis: A colonoscopy with biopsy confirms colorectal cancer and its location (colon vs. rectum matters for treatment planning).
- Staging: Staging CT (and sometimes PET-CT) determines the TNM stage — depth of bowel-wall invasion, lymph-node involvement, and distant spread — alongside MSI-H/dMMR biomarker testing.
- Tumor board review: A multidisciplinary team reviews the pathology, imaging, and biomarker results together.
- Treatment: The standard modalities — surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy (particularly for rectal tumors), and immunotherapy (for MSI-H/dMMR tumors) — are combined based on stage and tumor location.
- Follow-up: A written surveillance schedule with colonoscopy and imaging follow-up is set, adapted to stage.
How colorectal cancer is staged
Colorectal cancer is staged using the TNM system — how deeply the tumor has invaded the bowel wall and nearby structures (T), lymph-node involvement (N), and distant metastasis (M) — combined into an overall stage from 0 to IV. Location matters for treatment planning even at the same stage: rectal tumors, because of their location near other pelvic structures, are more often treated with radiotherapy before surgery than colon tumors are. MSI-H/dMMR biomarker testing is now standard at diagnosis, since it identifies tumors more likely to respond to immunotherapy.
The standard treatment modalities
Standard modalities include surgery (resection of the affected bowel segment, often laparoscopic), chemotherapy (commonly used adjuvantly after surgery, or before surgery for some rectal tumors), radiotherapy (particularly for locally advanced rectal cancer, often combined with chemotherapy), and, for MSI-H/dMMR tumors specifically, immunotherapy. Which combination applies depends on tumor location, stage, and biomarker status established during workup.
What a second opinion checks
A tumor-board second opinion re-examines the staging imaging and pathology (including MSI-H/dMMR results) directly — since whether a rectal tumor needs treatment before surgery, or whether an immunotherapy-eligible biomarker was tested for at all, are exactly the details a re-review catches.