Targeted drugs in metastatic colorectal cancer with special emphasis on guidelines for the use of bevacizumab and cetuximab: An Acta Oncologica expert report

Current role of antibody therapy in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer

“…Data on antibodies were also identified in relevant publications and from listings in recent overviews (Veronese and O'Dwyer, 2004;Nygren et al, 2005;Stern and Herrmann, 2005;Arnold et al, 2006;Saunders and Iveson, 2006;Van Cutsem et al, 2006). Full reporting of final results from important clinical trials often lags behind more preliminary reports in the abstract form.…”

“…A number of approaches, from small molecules to antibodies (Nygren et al, 2005), can inhibit this signal transduction and thus slow down the growth of malignant cells. These new agents are often designated as 'targeted drugs' and very encouraging results have been obtained if administered with combination chemotherapy.…”

“…These new agents are often designated as 'targeted drugs' and very encouraging results have been obtained if administered with combination chemotherapy. The use of monoclonal antibodies have moved into the routine health care of patients with mCRC, and in recent years a huge number of patients have received antibodies often in combination with chemotherapy (Nygren et al, 2005;Arnold et al, 2006).…”

“…In June 2004, Erbitux was approved by EMEA for the following indication: 'Erbitux in combination with irinotecan is indicated for the treatment of patients with EGFRexpressing metastatic colorectal cancer after failure of irinotecan-including cytotoxic therapy' (Nygren et al, 2005).…”

“…Recent retrospective studies Hebbar et al, 2006) confirmed activity of CxIri or Cx alone in EGFR negative mCRC, and the practice of testing EGFR status by IHC to select for Cx (or Pa) therapy is clearly inappropriate and other predictive tests are needed (Meropol, 2005;Nygren et al, 2005;Hecht et al, 2006b). Furthermore, the expression in primary tumors does not necessarily reflect or predict the expression in metastatic sites (Scartozzi et al, 2004).…”