Dr. Venook Discusses the Future of Colorectal Cancer Treatment

Alan P. Venook, MD, professor, Department of Medicine (Hematology/Oncology), University of California, San Francisco, discusses the future of colorectal cancer treatment.

Venook says that while it may be difficult to improve survival for some patients, steps must be taken to screen more patients for colorectal cancer. In the future, researchers will try to stratify patients as much as breast cancer patients are subtyped. This will help researchers find nuances, Venook says, but the process in doing so is difficult and time consuming.

It is important for colorectal cancer patients to be placed on clinical trials. If patients are not treated in studies, researchers will not learn much from their course, Venook says.