Cetuximab in treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer: background and clinical observation

Abstract

Today, the researchers continue the search for the most optimal regimens of drug therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) which are supposed to increase progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), improve patient quality of life. Due to significant progress in chemotherapy (CT) and surgical treatment of mCRC, and the multidisciplinary approach, the treatment algorithms have changed. The increase in life expectancy of patients is observed when all three of the most active chemotherapy drugs in this disease: oxaliplatin (Oxa), irinotecan (Iri), fluoropyrimidines are administered. The inclusion of the targeted drug cetuximab in modern mCRC treatment regimens led to a statistically significant increase in the objective response rate (ORR), median PFS and OS. The article presents the results of the most significant clinical studies of the eficacy of the antiEGFR drug cetuximab in combination with standard CT regimens for the first- and second-line treatment of mCRC, and describes a clinical case of the successful use of cetuximab in mCRC therapy.

Keywords

• metastatic colorectal cancer (mcrc)
• targeted therapy
• epidermal growth factor receptor (egfr)
• monoclonal antibody (mab)
• cetuximab
• chemotherapy (ct)
• irinotecan
• oxaliplatin
• fluoropyrimidines