First-line therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer: Current perspectives and future directions

The prognosis for patients with newly diagnosed inoperable metastatic colorectal cancer has steadily improved over the past two decades as new agents have been introduced into clinical practice and many new biomarkers have been discovered. In parallel with this progress, clinicians face increasingly complex treatment decisions. This review summarizes recent progress, with a historical perspective, which should help guide the clinician in decision making and optimal therapy selection. This review not only focuses on important and readily identifiable subsets, including primary tumor side and v-RAF murine sarcoma viral oncogene homologue B (BRAF) mutations, but also discusses rarer molecular subgroups that may be important for determining treatment in the future.