[Current aspects of adjuvant and palliative chemotherapy in colorectal carcinoma]

With an annual incidence rate of 30 to 40 per 100,000 colorectal carcinoma is the second most frequent malignancy in Germany. Despite the poor outcome of patients suffering from this disease important advances have been made in the standardisation and improvement of palliative and adjuvant treatment in patients with colorectal cancer. For the systemic chemotherapy 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) remains the most important cytotoxic agent and biomodulation of the therapeutic activity of 5-FU with methotrexate or particularly folinic acid has been clinically established, yielding response rates in 20 to 35% of patients. Current investigations of systemic treatment are aiming into three directions: 1. investigation of high-dose continuous (24-hours) 5-FU application (with or without modulation by folinic acid); 2. evaluation of new, effective cytotoxic agents, among which the camphotecin derivative CPT-11 (irenotecan) and the specific thymidilate synthase inhibitor Tomudex appear to be the most promising drugs as single agents and/or in combination with 5-FU; 3. use of orally available fluoropyrimidine derivatives with high bioavailability which may substantially improve the quality of life in palliative therapy. The postoperative adjuvant treatment of patients with Dukes C colorectal cancer is established clinical practice and the combination of 5-FU and levamisol given for one year will result in an improved overall survival of about 15% at five years compared to surgery alone. Although this regimen remains the current standard treatment, alternatives for the adjuvant treatment may be the use of 5-FU and folinic acid given for only half a year post surgery, locoregional perfusion of the liver with 5-FU alone via the portal vene by 7-day continuous application or the use of 17-1A monoclonal antibody immunotherapy after curative resection. Further improvement may be achieved by the combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy which is currently tested in clinical studies. Future recommendations for the adjuvant treatment of colorectal cancer will not only be based on therapeutic efficacy but will also have to take costs of treatment into account. Better definition of high-risk patient groups for adjuvant treatment is needed.