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Why precision medicine should be applied across the continuum of care for metastatic colorectal cancer patients

Written by Puzzoni M, Ziranu P, Demurtas L et al.

metachronous colorectal adenoma

This article provides insight into the potential scope of precision medicine in treating metastatic colorectal cancer. The authors concluded that despite the dynamic nature of tumor biology and the genetic heterogenicity of colorectal cancer, there still remains to be a sufficient amount of research being translated into clinical practise.

This recent article published in Future Oncology explores current research into metastatic colorectal cancer treatment and the potential for adapting and tailoring the currently available treatment options.

Abstract

Metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) treatment has been improved by several effective therapies, including chemotherapeutic agents combined with monoclonal antibodies targeting the EGFR or the VEGF. The multikinase inhibitor regorafenib and the fluoropyrimidine trifluridine/tipiracil are indicated for pretreated patients. However, despite the efforts in clinical and translational research, no novel drugs have recently been included in the mCRC therapeutic scenario and the results obtained in pretreated patients are disappointing. Therefore, we have to improve the management of the already available treatment options in order to adapt them to the dynamic nature of tumor biology and to the genetic heterogeneity of colorectal cancer. In this respect, the global treatment strategy would not be obtusely based only on RAS-BRAF status on tissue samples at diagnosis but also on the basis of the recent findings regarding the pulsatile behavior of RAS clones under EGFR blockade.

Read the full paper here