[Colorectal cancer: current treatment options]

Colorectal Cancer is one of the leading causes for cancer related death in the industrialized world. The 5 year overall survival is only 50 - 60 %, although 70 - 80% of the patients are potentially cured by surgical resection. During the last 10 years intensive clinical studies helped to establish the value of adjuvant therapy for colorectal cancer. The introduction of new chemotherapeutic agents like Irinotecan and Oxaliplatin, has led to a significant increase in tumor response and median survival in patients with colorectal carcinoma receiving adjuvant or palliative chemotherapy. In the later situation the sequential application of new combination therapies enables an overall survival of exceeding more than 20 month. In addition the targeted manipulation of molecular tumor mechanisms with new substances like monoclonal antibodies against the epidermal growth factor receptor or the vascular endothelial growth factor shows promising effects. Besides the encouraging improvement of treatment results the introduction of the new drugs has also led to more complexity within choice, strategy and conduction of specific therapies. This manuscript introduces actual treatment concepts and their impact on colorectal cancer.