[Therapy for advanced colorectal carcinoma--new developments and standards]

Colorectal carcinoma is the second common cause of death from cancer. For a long period patients with metastatic disease were considered incurable except for a small subgroup with isolated surgically complete removable lesions in the lungs and the liver. Chemotherapy was a treatment of unproven value, beneficial in very few patients. However, in the last two decades it has become a well-documented survival prolonging treatment, postponing tumor symptoms in the majority of patients, and potentially curing some patients if combined with aggressive surgery.