In this interview at ESMO 2018, Marc Peeters talks to touchONCOLOGY about colorectal cancer tumour location and biomarkers. He explains that left-sided cancers have a better prognosis and suggests some possible reasons for this. Dr Peeters also discusses how the use of biomarkers has developed in the last 10 years and how treatment and prognosis can be guided using these biomarkers. This development is largely down to progress in technology, such as easier access to next generation sequencing, and the advent of liquid biopsies. Unfortunately, there are certain types of colorectal cancers with a poor prognosis, such as RAS- and BRAF-mutated tumours. There is still a need for biologics that can be added to standard chemotherapy in patients with these tumours.
Questions:
1. What has been the most important recent therapeutic breakthrough in metastatic colorectal cancer? (0:11)
2. What is the prognostic significance of tumour location in colorectal cancer? (0:59)
3. What progress has been made in understanding the prognostic significance of molecular biomarkers in colorectal cancer? (1:45)
4. What are the most important unmet needs in colorectal cancer? (3:09)
5. What do you expect to be the highlights of this year’s ESMO congress? (4:21)
Speaker disclosures: Marc Peeters has nothing to disclose in relation to this interview.
Filmed at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2018 Congress, Munich, Germany, 19–23 October 2018.
