Challenges and solutions in patient treatment strategies for stage II colon cancer

Abstract

Colorectal cancer remains one of the most common cancers worldwide and, despite improvements in treatment options for late-stage metastatic cancer, there are still questions surrounding how best to treat early-stage disease patients. Some recent advances have been made in the staging of cancer and improving the risk assessment of strategies for patient treatment. A number of high-risk features have been proposed that may help to stratify stage II cancer patients into groups that will truly benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. Diagnostic tests are becoming available to measure these biomarkers, utilizing both currently available and novel technologies. This review will describe the challenges in treatment decisions for early-stage colon cancer and how personalized medicine can assist clinicians in making the best treatment choices for patients with stage II colon cancer in particular.

Keywords: Colorectal cancer; challenge; treatment strategy.

Figure 1.

Kaplan–Meier plot illustrating cancer-specific survival (CSS) for stage II patients with tumours that were diploid and low stroma (D and LS), diploid and high stroma or non-diploid and low stroma (D and HS/ND and LS) and non-diploid and high stroma (ND and HS). Taken from [63]. Reproduced from an original article published in Annals of Oncology © ESMO with the authors’ permission.