Molecular therapies for colorectal cancer metastatic to the liver

Colorectal cancers are the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancers and will account for over 56,000 deaths in the United States in 2002. A majority of patients with advanced colorectal cancer develop liver metastases during the course of their disease. Treatment of colorectal cancer metastatic to the liver by surgery or chemotherapy is limited and most patients succumb to their disease. Therefore, a broad spectrum of novel treatments, including innovative molecular therapies such as gene and immunotherapy or replication-competent viral therapy, is under preclinical investigation and several clinical trials are in progress. Here we review molecular therapies for colorectal cancer metastatic to the liver.