Abstract
Despite advances over the past 20 years in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, diagnosis,
and treatment, survival outcomes remain suboptimal. Five-year survival for patients
with locally advanced CRC is 69%; 5-year survival drops to 12% for patients with metastatic
disease. Novel, effective systemic therapies are needed to improve long-term outcomes.
In this review, we describe currently available systemic therapies for the treatment
of locally advanced and metastatic CRC and discuss emerging therapies, including encouraging
advances in identifying novel targeted agents and exciting responses to immunotherapeutic
agents.
Keywords
colorectal cancer - emerging therapies - targeted therapy - immunotherapy - clinical
trials