Vaccination against tumour blood vessels in colorectal cancer

摘要

Prognosis in colorectal cancer (CRC) is inextricably linked to pathological stage, with metastatic disease having a 5-year survival of less than 10%. The mainstay of curative treatment relies upon a histologically clear resection margin at surgery, and the long-term absence of metastatic spread. Around 80% of resections for CRC result in an Ro histological diagnosis, but of these, 50% will relapse to metastatic disease, due to micrometastases which were present at the time of original resection. This premise is the basis for adjuvant treatment of poor prognostic groups (Dukes stage C/D) with systemic therapies. Chemotherapy has been in established use as adjuvant treatment in CRC for over 50 years, but despite introduction of new agents, and the use of monoclonal antibodies, presentation with metastatic disease still carries a poor prognosis.