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Colorectal cancer in 2014

Progress in defining first-line and maintenance therapies

The results of several clinical trials in metastatic colorectal cancer presented in 2014 will influence clinical practice. These findings include definitive data from phase III trials comparing bevacizumab and cetuximab-based therapy in the first-line, studies elucidating the value of maintenance therapy after induction treatment, and data on new agents in this disease.

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Correspondence to Axel Grothey.

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Competing interests

Research funding for A.G. was provided by Bayer, Eisai/Morphotek, Eli–Lilly, Genentech, Pfizer, and Sanofi. A.G. received honoraria for consulting from Amgen, Bayer, Boston Biomedicals, Bristol–Myers Squibb, Eli-Lilly, Genentech/Roche, and Sanofi. Research funding for J.M.H. was provided by Boston Biomedicals, Genentech and, PRISM. The Mayo Clinic Foundation received honoraria for consulting by J.M.H from Bayer.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Table 1

Comparison of outcomes of FIRE 3 and CALGB/SWOG 80405 trials (DOC 52 kb)

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Hubbard, J., Grothey, A. Progress in defining first-line and maintenance therapies. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 12, 73–74 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2014.233

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