Looking ahead: what will change in colorectal cancer treatment?

Since the mid 1990s, colorectal cancer treatment has undergone substantial changes and improvements. In 1996, 5-fluorouracil was the only drug available for treatment of this disease. At the time of this writing, six additional agents, plus the biomodulator leucovorin, have been approved for use in metastatic colorectal cancer. The overall progress, however, has been modest, and colorectal cancer remains the number two cause of cancer death in the United States. New drugs, new paradigms, and new patient selection criteria are needed in order to make the necessary further improvements in the management of this disease.