[Progress of adjuvant chemotherapy in colon cancer]

There have been no life-prolonging effects of surgical adjuvant chemotherapy with 5-FU alone or in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs, so surgical resection has been considered a standard therapy for colorectal cancer. Recently, clinical trials of modulation therapy with 5-FU and leucovorin showed higher efficacies in advanced colorectal cancer, and significant prolongations of survival time and disease-free interval were reported in a randomized trial of 5-FU and leucovorin for postoperative adjuvant therapy of resected colon cancer. Moreover, in a scientifically well controlled randomized study with 5-FU and levamisole, the significance of this regimen for Dukes C colon cancer has been shown for standard adjuvant chemotherapy.