Colorectal cancer and evidence for cure by adjuvant chemotherapy

Future database analyses will demonstrate how the results of this study compare with current management of adjuvant colon cancer. With the addition of oxaliplatin to 5-FU/LV as the standard of care in the adjuvant colon cancer setting, there has been a 7% improvement in the 3-year DFS of these patients,¹ which has been shown to provide an OS survival benefit after 6 years.10 Based on the results of this analysis, the OS benefit from oxaliplatin is likely to grow with time since few late recurrences are anticipated. It is unclear if findings will be similar with biologic therapies, which are currently being tested in clinical trials for adjuvant colon cancer. If biologic therapy prevents recurrences, then findings of this analysis will likely hold true. However, results may not be similar if recurrences are simply delayed by biologic agents. Large database analyses provide a greater understanding of the nature of disease and response to therapy, as well as guidance for the conduct of clinical trials and the appropriateness of statistical models. The ACCENT collaborators will continue to obtain individual patient data from the latest generation of adjuvant colon cancer therapy clinical trials.