Colorectal Cancer

Although the current standard treatment for patients with locally advanced rectal cancer is preoperative chemoradiotherapy followed by total mesorectal excision, concerns have been raised over the functional sequelae and possible overtreatment of rectal cancer patients.

In this article, we review risks and benefits of the standard treatment approach for rectal cancer and compare standard treatment with alternative methods aimed at rectal preservation.

Colorectal cancer patients with higher levels of plasma vitamin D have better survival outcomes, according to a new prospective study.

Age is a prognostic factor for both overall survival and progression-free survival among patients diagnosed with metastatic colorectal cancer, according to the results of a study.

Consuming more than two servings of fish each week can reduce a person’s risk for recurrence of colorectal cancer, according to the results of a cross-sectional multinational study.

The landscape of cancer therapy is shifting from traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy towards targeted therapy with agents like tyrosine kinase inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies. However, these newer agents remain costly, and traditional chemotherapy remains the backbone for treating most malignancies.

Methods of screening for colorectal cancer are estimated to have prevented between a quarter of a million to a half a million colorectal cancers, according to a recently published study.

Colorectal cancer screening should be considered in unscreened patients aged 75 years or older, especially those with no comorbid conditions, according to a new study.

First-line treatment with chemotherapy plus either bevacizumab or cetuximab resulted in equally effective outcomes for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

Maintenance treatment with capecitabine and bevacizumab after 6 cycles of CAPOX B is an effective treatment in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, according to the final results of the CAIRO3 study.

Exposure to a preference-based mail and telephone navigation intervention increased colorectal cancer (CRC) screening adherence compared to a standard mailed intervention among African Americans.

The role of oxaliplatin in early-stage rectal cancer may still be unclear, according to the differing disease-free survival results from two studies presented at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Treatment with oxaliplatin-containing FOLFOX significantly improved the 3-year disease-free survival of select patients with curatively resected rectal cancer compared with treatment with 5-fluorouracil/leucovorin.

As part of our coverage of the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting, we discuss some of the colorectal cancer research that is expected to be presented at the meeting.

Urban environments had a higher density of colorectal care providers including gastroenterologists, general surgeons, and radiations oncologists compared with rural environments, according to the results of a recent retrospective study.

Treatment with panitumumab resulted in improved overall survival compared with bevacizumab when added to mFOLFOX6 for patients with wild-type KRAS exon 2 metastatic colorectal cancer.

Points made in commentaries on “Colorectal Cancer: How Emerging Molecular Understanding Affects Treatment Decisions” are addressed by authors Hubbard and Grothey.

A new study shows that people with high levels of the 15-PGDH enzyme who used aspirin regularly were half as likely to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer.

We have yet to establish a standard practice for maintenance therapy in metastatic colorectal cancer. Of course, ideally we could find a biomarker of benefit for patients who should be managed this way, but thus far we have had no such luck.

The addition of cetuximab to chemotherapy containing oxaliplatin and fluorouracil resulted in a significantly shorter progression-free survival in patients with operable KRAS exon 2 wild-type colorectal cancer liver metastases, according to results of a recent study.

The greater distance a patient had to travel to reach a diagnosing facility the more likely that patient was to present with a higher stage disease of colon cancer, according to the results of a recent study.

A high body mass index prior to a colorectal cancer diagnosis is linked to a higher risk of death, even when the patient’s tumor type is generally associated with a better prognosis.

A new study reports that a multitarget stool DNA test is sensitive and accurate and is an improvement over previous DNA stool-based detection tests.

The rates of colon cancer in US adults aged 50 and older have decreased by 3% per year over the last 10 years, with the largest decrease seen in those over the age of 65.

Current evidence suggests that only four DPYD and TYMS variants should make up the panel of genetic biomarkers for testing for toxicity to capecitabine monotherapy, according to the results of a recent study.

The use of full-spectrum colonoscopy significantly decreased the number of adenomas missed during an examination compared with the use of forward-viewing colonoscopy, according to the results of an international, multicenter study.

Molecularly profiling colorectal cancer has opened many potential opportunities for the use of this information in therapeutic decision-making. However, at present, only RAS testing in the metastatic setting has a definitive place in the decision-making paradigm.

In this review we discuss the current treatment options in metastatic colon cancer, with a special focus on biologic agents and how molecular understanding guides treatment decisions.

It was originally hoped that the presence of mutations in KRAS and other related genes would provide an easy answer as to whether to administer anti-EGFR antibody therapy to a given metastatic colorectal cancer patient. However, in nature nothing is simple, and there are a number of issues that practicing clinicians should be made aware of.

Progress in the area of targeted therapies for colorectal cancer has come slowly and with some difficulty.