ABSTRACT
Colorectal cancer is one of the most frequent tumours worldwide, ranking third in males and second in females: every year 700 000 new cases are diagnosed and 500 000 patients die from this disease. It is a common opinion that the overall survival related to colorectal cancer has improved only marginally in the last few decades, despite advances in surgery and in early detection: potentially curative resection at disease presentation can be performed in only 70-80% of patients, but, even in these cases, the overall survival rate at 5 years does not exceed 60%, indicating the need for an effective adjuvant treatment.
