[Biotherapies in metastatic colorectal cancers in 2014]

Abstract

The treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer has been transformed during the last decade with biotherapies, two of them were marketed in 2013. Four agents are monoclonal antibodies, while the fifth agent is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Two agents are inhibitors of the EGF-receptor pathway, cetuximab and panitumumab, and have as class-toxicity, cutaneous toxicity. The other three agents are bevacizumab, aflibercept and regorafenib, and interact with angiogenesis, they are associated with a risk of vascular toxicity, mainly hypertension. These agents participate to an improvement of disease control at the metastatic stage, and in some cases, favour the curative surgical resection of metastases. Their use is discussed in multidisciplinary meetings dedicated to gastrointestinal cancers, in the presence of liver surgeons.