[Systemic chemotherapy of colorectal cancer--recent approaches]

Progress in the treatment of cancer with drugs has altered the clinical approach to patients with cancer. However, chemotherapy used as sole treatment for colorectal cancer has not been generally successful in providing palliation or improving patient life span. This article describes the recent new efforts to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy: including combination chemotherapy, biochemical modulation, combination of 5-fluorouracil and interferon, quality of life assessment in chemotherapy, and clinical issues of adjuvant chemotherapy. However, available data from these studies dose not establish a true therapeutic advance in the treatment of colorectal cancer, and do provide a strong scientific rationale for well-controlled randomized clinical trials. Furthermore, there is a strong imperative for the development of new therapeutic strategies in this disease.