SEATTLE – When it comes to the decline in death rates due to cancer, the most dramatic drop has been in colon cancer deaths. More people are getting screened and there are more drugs to treat it.

Some of the newest innovations are coming out of Seattle, helping local patients like Tiffany Hiegle.

Tiffany knows a thing or two about patience. It's one of the many virtues she's learned to appreciate over the past seven years.

"I watch a lot of people and they get all worked up about… the plumbers late and they caught the red light… and I think people get worked up over things being such a big deal and it's like I've been through a big deal and that's not it," says Tiffany.

The 'big deal' that she has been through is colorectal cancer.

The odds were not in Tiffany's favor.

"When we first met her was in November 2002, and at that time, she presented with a recurrent colorectal cancer in the lymph node. And she actually failed two surgeries with the attempted resection of these recurrences," says Dr. Edward Lin of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

In an attempt to mitigate the toxicity and ward off the threat of an inflammatory disorder, Dr. Lin employed a maintenance therapy that combined two medications; Celecoxib and Capecitabine.

"And the rationale for the combining (the medications) at the time was to mitigate this inflammatory hanafisama, which is a painful arithematis swelling of the hand and feet," said Lin.

This cocktail ended up with a surprise result. It kept the inflammation at bay longer, but it also sustained the remission in many of the patients.

In addition to the form of therapy Tiffany is receiving, there are other exciting breakthoughs. Doctors say we are very close to having a urine test available to screen for colon cancer.

Tune in to KING 5 on Saturday, Dec. 22 at 8 p.m. for a HealthLink special: "Cancer Breakthoughs: The Latest and Greatest." It re-airs Friday, Dec. 28 at 10 p.m. PST on NorthWest Cable News and Sunday, Dec. 30 at 9 p.m. on KONG 6/16.