Adjuvant treatment of colorectal cancer

Abstract Long-term survival after a diagnosis of colorectal cancer has more than doubled in the United Kingdom over the last 40 years (from 22% to 57%). This is a result of a number of factors including screening and earlier diagnosis (and therefore stage migration), improved surgical technique, better post-operative care, as well as a growing array of intensive potentially curative treatments for metastatic disease, as outlined in other chapters of this book. However, the development of adjuvant chemotherapy, given after macroscopic clearance of a primary colorectal cancer in an attempt to eradicate microscopic residual metastatic disease, has also played a role in improving CRC outcomes and it is this subject that will be covered in this chapter.