Dr. Le on Research Needed to Address Unmet Needs in mCRC

Phat Le, MD, assistant professor, Department of General Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses research efforts that are need to address unmet needs in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

One area that many ongoing trials are focused on has to do with a small population of patients with mCRC, such as those with microsatellite instability—high tumors, says Le. A lot of new data are coming out for those subsets of patients; however, those with MSI-H disease only represent about 4% of all patients with mCRC, adds Le.

More research is needed in the larger population of patients with mCRC, says Le, such as those who are MSI stable and who do not have any activating mutations to target. Although it is great that new therapies are being developed for subsets of patients with mCRC, there is still an unmet need for the majority of the patient population. Hopefully, the field will see more advances made for patients who do not fall into those rare and specific subcategories, concludes Le.