Incidenţa prin cancer colorectal în majoritatea ţărilor este în continuă creştere, iar ponderea formelor avansate este înaltă. Chimioterapia cancerului de colon a evoluat în jurul antimetabolitului FU. Rata de răspuns s-a ameliorat cu circa 25% atunci când s-a asociat acidul folinic (LV) pentru a modula activitatea 5-FU. După mai mulţi ani de stagnare tratamentul CCR s-au obţinut progrese semnifi cative, datorită noilor remedii care s-au adăugat într-un timp relativ scurt la arsenalul terapeutic al CCR metastatic: Irinotecan, Oxaliplatin, Capecitabina, Tegafur şi anticorpii monoclonali Bevacizumab şi Cetuximab.

The incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) is increasing in the most parts of the world and the rate of advanced cases is high. For over 30 years, 5- fl uorouracil (5-FU) has been the base of systemic cytotoxic chemotherapy, but the advent of new cytotoxic agents in recent years has been widened treatment options. Oxaliplatin and irinotecan enriched the arsenal of chemotherapy agents, in addition to leucovorin (LV) modulated 5-FU, what permit to improve response rate and survival over 5-FU/ LV alone. In addition, oral fl uoropyrimidines including capecitabine and UFT were demonstrated to be of similar effi cacy as bolus 5-FU/LV. More recently, clinical trials showed that targeted therapy is valuable for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Median survival has been improved again with the combination of chemo- and targeted therapies.