Dr. El-Rayes Discusses Methods of Locoregional Therapy in mCRC

Bassel El-Rayes, MD, chief clinical research scientist, Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, discusses methods of locoregional therapy in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

Locoregional approaches can be divided into 2 main categories, El-Rayes says. There are ablative approaches, which include radiofrequency ablation, microwave ablation, or stereotactic body radiation. The other category includes treatments that are delivered through a catheter or transcatheter like chemoembolization, radioembolization, and hepatic artery infusion.

El-Rayes notes that deciding the right approach depends largely on the extent of the disease a physician is treating. For example, the ablative treatments are more useful for discrete lesions, whereas the transcatheter therapies are more useful for disease that has metastasized to a larger portion of the liver, says El-Rayes.