[Colorectal cancer: a controllable disease]

Colorectal cancer is one of the most frequent cancers in western countries. Five years after curative surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy, about 10% more patients with Dukes C colon cancer are free of disease compared to the control group. Several regimens using 5-fluorouracil with folinic acid (5FU/FA) or levamisole are available. For patients with disseminated disease. 5FU/FA based treatments allows a doubling in survival as compared to best supportive care. Moreover, quality of life is significantly improved. New agents are upcoming. Tomudex seems to be equivalent to 5FU/FA but easier to administer. CPT-11 or oxaliplatin have been investigated in second line after failure of 5FU/FA. The available data suggest that median survival is prolonged by ten months, in addition to what was already obtained in first line with 5FU/FA. Colorectal cancer must be revisited. An active approach of our patients should allow to reduce the incidence of the disease, to increase the number of disease free patients 5 years after surgery, to prolong survival and improve the quality of life of those who will develop metastatic disease.