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Oncotype DX for Colon Cancer: Are We Ready for Prime Time in Personalized Medicine?

  • Translational Colorectal Oncology (Y Jiang, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Colorectal Cancer Reports

Abstract

Significant advances have been made in the treatment of patients with early-stage colon cancer during the last several decades. However, a substantial number of patients with early-stage disease will not be cured by surgery alone. Although adjuvant chemotherapy has been well accepted for the treatment of stage III disease, the precise role of adjuvant chemotherapy in stage II disease remains a subject of debate. Although patients with high-risk stage II disease derive significant benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy, it remains unclear whether patients with average or low-risk stage II disease should receive adjuvant therapy. Significant efforts have been made to develop molecular biomarkers to further define the subset of stage II disease patients who would derive a substantial benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. Herein, we review the current status of molecular biomarker research in the treatment of colorectal cancer with respect to the specific role of the Oncotype DX gene expression profiling method in patients with stage II disease.

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Acknowledgments

The contents of this article are, in part, an update to Edward Chu's article titled “Application of Microsatellite Instability and Oncotype DX in Stage II Colon Cancer Adjuvant Therapy,” which was published in volume 7, issue 4 (December 2011), of Current Colorectal Cancer Reports (DOI 10.1007/s11888-011-0105-2).

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Conflict of Interest

James J. Lee and Edward Chu declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Hematology Oncology, Molecular Therapeutics Drug Discovery Program, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, UPMC Cancer Pavilion, 5150 Centre Avenue, 5th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA, 15232, USA

    James J. Lee & Edward Chu

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  1. James J. Lee
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  2. Edward Chu
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Correspondence to James J. Lee.

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Lee, J.J., Chu, E. Oncotype DX for Colon Cancer: Are We Ready for Prime Time in Personalized Medicine?. Curr Colorectal Cancer Rep 9, 312–316 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11888-013-0186-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11888-013-0186-1

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