Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium XXIV Innovative Cancer Therapy for Tomorrow: Part 2

After nearly 50 years of research, three agents are recommended for use as the platform in colorectal cancer: 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), irinotecan (Camptosar, Pfizer), and oxaliplatin (Eloxatin, Sanofi-Synthelabo). Survival has been correlated with exposure of the patient to all three agents. Despite extending the median survival time for advanced colon cancer to more than 20 months, however, it is not clear whether chemotherapy will be able to advance survival time even further. Longer survival will depend on the development of newer therapies. Drugs that have an impact on two new targets—vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGF-R)—have demonstrated beneficial activity in advanced colon cancer. Angiogenesis, the process of new blood vessel formation, is essential to the growth of cancer. The VEGF family of proteins is a primary activator of angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis. Therapies that target VEGF and EGF-R are designed to stop the growth of cancer cells at the genetic and protein level.