Dr. Bekaii-Saab on the Uptake of Precision Medicine in CRC

Tanios S. Bekaii-Saab, MD, FACP, medical oncologist, medical director, Cancer Clinical Research Office, vice chair and section chief, Medical Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, discusses the uptake of precision medicine in colorectal cancer (CRC).

Personalized medicine is a growing treatment approach for patients with CRC, says Bekaii-Saab. For example, targeted therapies for patients with BRAF, HER2, or KRAS G12C mutations are showing promise in this space, Bekaii-Saab says.

However, after frontline therapy or for patients who do not harbor actionable alterations, cytotoxic chemotherapy remains the standard of care for patients with CRC, Bekaii-Saab explains. In the third- and later-line settings, oral therapies, such as TAS-102 (trifluridine/tipiracil; Lonsurf) or regorafenib (Stivarga), are standard options for patients with relapsed/refractory disease, concludes Bekaii-Saab.