ESMO 2017 | Metastatic colorectal cancer: trifluridine/tiripacil or regorafenib?

Alfredo Carrato, MD, PhD, Ramon y Cajal University Hospital, Madrid, Spain, discusses recently approved treatments for metastatic colorectal cancer at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 in Madrid, Spain. Regorafenib and trifluridine/ tipiracil have recently been approved in the treatments of metastatic colorectal cancer. Both differ in their mechanism of action, as well as their toxicity profile. Neutropenia is the main dose limiting toxicity of trifluridine/ tipiracil, but the main dose limiting toxicity of regorafenib is hand-foot syndrome. This impacts which treatment is used, depending on the toxicity the patient is most likely able to cope with. These treatments have shown to improve survival as well as quality of life, which is important.