Adjuvant colon cancer chemotherapy: where we are and where we'll go

Many patients with early-stage colon cancer are cured with surgery alone, even if the standard of care remains an uniform approach to adjuvant chemotherapy based primarily on tumour stage. Consequently, it is important to individualize decision-making in this subset of patients with the aim to identify potential prognostic and predictive markers in colon cancer. While 5-fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin are widely known as gold treatment in the post-operative of stage III, well-validated molecular markers might help define which patients with stage II disease are likely to benefit from adjuvant therapy as well. Herein we review the use of adjuvant chemotherapy in colon cancer and analyzed the date on the clinical development of molecular markers to individualize another therapeutic approach in colon cancer. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.