Metastatski rak debelega črevesa in danke je večinoma še vedno neozdravljiva bolezen, vendar sta se prognoza in preživetje teh bolnikov v zadnjih 6 letih močno izboljšala. Od srednjega 10-mesečnega preživetja, ki smo ga dosegali z zdravljenjem s 5-fluorouracilom, ki je bilo pred nekaj leti edino učinkovito zdravilo za zdravljenje teh bolnikov, smo prešli na preživetje, daljše od 20 mesecev, kar so omogočili novi citostatiki. Kombinirano zdravljenje omogoča boljšo kakovost življenja in daljše remisije, s tem pa tudi daljše celostne preživetje. Uporaba kombinacije citostatikov s tarčnimi zdravili vodi v nadaljnje podaljšanje srednjega preživetja teh bolnikov, srednje preživetje je tako daljše od 30 mesecev. To zdravljenje v kombinaciji z operacijo pljučnih ali jetrnih zasevkov pa omogoča tudi zazdravitve. Pomembna letošnja novost je določanje mutacij na genu KRAS. Za raka debelega črevesja in danke je gen KRAS prvi biomarker, ki napoveduje, kako se bodo bolniki odzvali na neko zdravljenje.In most cases, metastatic colorectal cancer is incurablehowever, the prognosis and survival of these patients have significantly improved in the last six years. A few years back, the only efficient drug for colorectal carcinoma, 5-fluoruracil, yielded the mean survival of 10 months, whereas today, the survival rates of 20 months or more may be obtained by using new citostatics. In the last six years, six new drugs were registered for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. These are three citostatics (capecitabine, irinotecan, oxaliplatin) and three target drugs (cetuximab, bevacizumab, panitumumab). A combined treatment assures a better quality of life, and longer remissions and overall survival. The combination of cytostatics and target drugs improves particularly the mean survival rate which may be longer than 30 months. These combinations of drugs used together with surgical treatment of lung and liver metastases may result in complete remission. An important research achievement of this year is the determination of KRAS mutations. The KRAS gene is the first biomarker that predicts how well patients will respond to certain combination of treatment
