Cancer Treatment Today

Gemzar( gemcitabine) has been tested for colon and recatl cancer. A 1992 study found that Gemcitabine did not demonstrate activity against advanced colorectal adenocarcinoma. ON teh other hand,a much later study found that Gemcitabine has a modest activity in heavily pre-treated colorectal cancer patients and may be an option in good performance status patients. There are a number of reports and ongoing studies of gemcitabine in combination for

After definitive treatmetn of colon cancer, patients are followed with CEA levels. When they begin to rise, a recurrence is suspected. PET is being more frequenlty used to detect and identify recurrence in this situation. More recently NCCN has been more supportive of PET in this setting. It used to support PET only in the situation of rising CEA and no identified recurrence for localization of disease recurrence in patients with rising CEA level

The issue that we will discuss is Xeliri (Xeloda and irinotecan) in second or later line of therapy. It is a tempting regimen because Xeldoa is an generally effective drug for colorectal cancer and it is oral.  We start by pointing out that there are now six different classes of drugs with significant antitumor activity in colon cancer: Fluoropyrimidine (5-fluorouracil [5-FU] which is usually given with leucovorin [LV], capecitabine, tegafur plus

There are now five different classes of drugs with significant antitumor activity in colon cancer: Fluoropyrimidine(5-fluorouracil [5-FU] which is usually given with leucovorin [LV], capecitabine, tegafur plus uracil [UFT]), Irinotecan, Oxaliplatin, Cetuximab and panitumumab (Vectbix). The latter two are monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) directed against the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and bevacizumab, is a monoclonal antibody targeting