Colon cancer needs better screening and treatment options. Its incidence in the young population is rising. Recent changes in guidelines recommend beginning screening for colon cancer at the age of 45. Circulating tumor DNA presents an opportunity to select patients for administration of adjuvant chemotherapy. Immunotherapy is an option for patients with a deficiency in mismatch repair proteins. However, its efficacy outside of this group of patients remains a challenge. Targeted therapies such as BRAF inhibitors are an option for patients with poor prognosis, for whom cytotoxic chemotherapy is not as effective. This review presents the recently published evidence regarding screening and treating patients with colon cancer.
Keywords: Circulating tumor DNA; Clinical trials; Colon cancer; Immunotherapy; Targeted therapy.
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