In patients with colorectal cancer, resection of liver-limited metastatic disease provides the only chance of cure. A recent study showed that the addition of cetuximab to conventional chemotherapy significantly increased the response rate and the rate of liver metastases resection in patients with colorectal cancer, providing another chance to cure patients with initially liver-limited unresectable disease.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Lievre, A. et al. KRAS mutations as an independent prognostic factor in patients with advanced colorectal cancer treated with cetuximab. J. Clin. Oncol. 26, 374–379 (2008).
Bokemeyer, C. et al. Efficacy according to biomarker status of cetuximab plus FOLFOX-4 as first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer: the OPUS study. Ann. Oncol. 22, 1535–1546 (2011).
Van Cutsem, E. et al. Cetuximab plus irinotecan, fluorouracil, and leucovorin as first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer: updated analysis of overall survival according to tumor KRAS and BRAF mutation status. J. Clin. Oncol. 29, 2011–2019 (2011).
Saltz, L. B. et al. Bevacizumab in combination with oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy as first-line therapy in metastatic colorectal cancer: a randomized phase III study. J. Clin. Oncol. 26, 2013–2019 (2008).
Koehne, C. H. et al. Efficacy of chemotherapy plus cetuximab according to metastatic site in KRAS wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC): Analysis of CRYSTAL and OPUS studies [abstract]. J. Clin. Oncol. 29 (Suppl.), a3576 (2011).
Ye, L. C. et al. Randomized controlled trial of cetuximab plus chemotherapy for patients with KRAS wild-type unresectable colorectal liver-limited metastases. J. Clin. Oncol. http://jco.ascopubs.org/cgi/doi/10.1200/JCO.2012.44.8308
Peeters, M. et al. Massively parallel tumor multigene sequencing to evaluate response to panitumumab in a randomized phase III study of metastatic colorectal cancer. Clin. Cancer Res. 19, 1902–1912 (2013).
Andre, T. et al. Panitumumab combined with irinotecan for patients with KRAS wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer refractory to standard chemotherapy: a GERCOR efficacy, tolerance, and translational molecular study. Ann. Oncol. 24, 412–419 (2013).
De Roock, W. et al. Effects of KRAS, BRAF, NRAS, and PIK3CA mutations on the efficacy of cetuximab plus chemotherapy in chemotherapy-refractory metastatic colorectal cancer: a retrospective consortium analysis. Lancet Oncol. 11, 753–762 (2010).
Laurent-Puig, P. et al. Analysis of PTEN, BRAF, and EGFR status in determining benefit from cetuximab therapy in wild-type KRAS metastatic colon cancer. J. Clin. Oncol. 27, 5924–5930 (2009).
Acknowledgements
We thank the program of research “Biointelligence” from OSEO and the “Institut National du Cancer” (INCa) for funding P. Laurent-Puig's laboratory.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
P. Laurent-Puig declares he is receives honorarium from Amgen, Merck–Serono, Pfizer and Sanofi. L. Benhaim declares no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Laurent-Puig, P., Benhaim, L. Cetuximab—an option for unresectable CRC liver metastases. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 10, 374–375 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2013.93
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2013.93