The prognosis of metastatic CRC (mCRC) patients has significantly improved in the past 20 years thanks to the introduction of novel therapeutic approaches, including surgery of liver, lung and peritoneal metastasis, and of more effective anticancer drugs and combinatory strategies. As the maximum clinical benefit is achieved during first-line treatment, the choice of the best front-line treatment represents the keystone in the whole therapeutic strategy. Current treatment options include the combinations of chemotherapy agents such as 5-Fu, oxaliplatin and/or irinotecan with EGFR inhibitors (in RAS/BRAF wild type patients) or with the anti-angiogenic drugs bevacizumab. Additionally, the introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors has revolutionized the treatment of patients with microsatellite instable CRC.
Alongside with the increasing number of therapeutic options, there are still different matters of debates, including: treatment of frail patients (un-fit for intense chemotherapy), the duration of induction strategy/perioperative treatment, the right timing of surgery and loco-regional treatment in the therapeutic program, the use of the maintenance therapy or possibility of “therapeutic holydays” in selected patients and the identification of novel biomarkers and prognostic score to optimize the available treatment for each patient.
In this Research Topic, we are inviting relevant original research (clinical and translational), high-quality reviews, meta-analyses and short communications covering the above-mentioned topics.
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
The prognosis of metastatic CRC (mCRC) patients has significantly improved in the past 20 years thanks to the introduction of novel therapeutic approaches, including surgery of liver, lung and peritoneal metastasis, and of more effective anticancer drugs and combinatory strategies. As the maximum clinical benefit is achieved during first-line treatment, the choice of the best front-line treatment represents the keystone in the whole therapeutic strategy. Current treatment options include the combinations of chemotherapy agents such as 5-Fu, oxaliplatin and/or irinotecan with EGFR inhibitors (in RAS/BRAF wild type patients) or with the anti-angiogenic drugs bevacizumab. Additionally, the introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors has revolutionized the treatment of patients with microsatellite instable CRC.
Alongside with the increasing number of therapeutic options, there are still different matters of debates, including: treatment of frail patients (un-fit for intense chemotherapy), the duration of induction strategy/perioperative treatment, the right timing of surgery and loco-regional treatment in the therapeutic program, the use of the maintenance therapy or possibility of “therapeutic holydays” in selected patients and the identification of novel biomarkers and prognostic score to optimize the available treatment for each patient.
In this Research Topic, we are inviting relevant original research (clinical and translational), high-quality reviews, meta-analyses and short communications covering the above-mentioned topics.
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
