Angiogenesis inhibition in metastatic colorectal cancer continuum of care

Current treatment for most patients with metastatic colorectal cancer consists of sequential lines of different systemic therapies, including chemotherapy combinations (5-fluorouracil plus irinotecan or oxaliplatin) with the addition of molecular-targeted drugs, such as anti-angiogenic drugs (independently of the molecular characterisation of the tumour) or anti-epidermal growth factor receptor drugs (for patients whose tumours are wild type for KRAS and NRAS genes). More recently, for the subgroup of patients with high microsatellite instable or mismatch repair deficient tumours (approximately 5% of patients), immune checkpoint inhibitors (pembrolizumab or nivolumab plus ipilimumab) have been shown to be highly effective as first-line or second-line therapies.