What are the targeted drugs for treating colon cancer

There are two types of targeted drugs for the treatment of prostate cancer used clinically in our country. One is a monoclonal antibody called Erbitux that acts on the EGFR receptor on the surface of tumor cells. After the drug takes effect, the signal transduction pathway of tumor cells is blocked, achieving an anti-tumor effect.

There is also an epidermal growth factor (VEGF) that acts on the tumor vascular endothelium, called Avastin. When used in combination with chemotherapy drugs, on the one hand, it increases the permeability of tumor blood vessels, allowing chemotherapy drugs to pass smoothly and kill tumor cells; on the other hand, it shrinks and blocks some disordered tumor blood vessels.

The two targeted drugs act on different targets, and they produce very good results when combined with chemotherapy. The efficacy of chemotherapy in the treatment of colorectal cancer can reach 40% to 50%. If combined with targeted therapy, the efficacy can be increased by more than 10%. For colorectal cancer patients with only liver metastasis, chemotherapy combined with targeted therapy can increase the efficacy to 70%, which greatly benefits the survival of patients.

One targeted drug acts on blood vessels to cut off tumor blood vessels, and the other directly targets tumor cells. For Erbitux, which acts on cell epidermal growth factor, we need to conduct genetic testing. If the K-ras gene is wild-type, combined chemotherapy can significantly improve the efficacy. If Kras is mutant, the effect is worse than chemotherapy alone, so Kras gene testing is an effective biomarker for Erbitux.