Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Dec 27, 2015; 7(12): 356-359
Published online Dec 27, 2015. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v7.i12.356
New active drugs for the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer
Alberto Zaniboni
Alberto Zaniboni, Medical Oncology Unit, Fondazione Poliambulanza, 25124 Brescia, Italy
Author contributions: Zaniboni A solely contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Alberto Zaniboni, MD, Medical Oncology Unit, Fondazione Poliambulanza, Via Bissolati 57, 25124 Brescia, Italy. alberto.zaniboni@poliambulanza.it
Telephone: +39-30-3515553 Fax: +39-30-3515942
Received: May 23, 2015
Peer-review started: May 25, 2015
First decision: August 16, 2015
Revised: September 27, 2015
Accepted: October 16, 2015
Article in press: October 19, 2015
Published online: December 27, 2015
Abstract

Newer active drugs have been recently added to the pharmacological armamentarium for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Aflibercept, a recombinant fusion protein composed of the extracellular domains of human vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFR) 1 and 2 and the Fc portion of human immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1), is an attractive second-line option in combination with folfiri for patients who have failed folfox +/- bevacizumab. Ramucirumab, a human IgG1 monoclonal antibody that targets VEGFR-2, provided similar results in the same setting. Tas-102, an oral fluoropyrimidine, and regorafenib, a multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitor, are both able to control the disease in a considerable proportion of patients when all other available treatments have failed. These new therapeutic options along with the emerging concept that previous therapies may also be reitroduced or rechallenged after regorafenib and Tas-102 failure are bringing new hope for thousands of patients and their families.

Keywords: Colorectal cancer, Aflibercept, Ramucirumab, Tas-102, Regorafenib

Core tip: A brief review dealing with four new active drugs for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer covering also the very recent publication of the Tas-102 trial on New England Journal of Medicine.