Table 1.

Tailored treatment of CRC—future perspectives.

Individualized factors	Preoperative phase	Operative phase	Postoperative phase
Molecular/genetic factors			MSI vs MSS KRAS mutation BRAF mutation: BRAFV600E poor prognosis PIK3CA mutation: aspirin treatment and anti-EGFR treatment at metastatic CRC
Radiochemotherapy	Complete responders after rectal cancer radiochemotherapy		MSI vs 5-FU monotherapy
Surgical technique	3D reconstruction of D3 area to optimize surgical technique Preoperative MRI	D3 dissection to improve lymph node harvest
Identification of high-risk patients	Preoperative MDT evaluation: sex, age, TNM stage, CEA level, tumor location, and hereditary factors/Lynch syndrome		Pathology report: tumor morphology, histologic grade, CEA level, lymph node harvest, lymphatic invasion, venous invasion, perineural invasion
Future perspectives	Improved identification of complete responders Radiation to activate the immune system	Measurement of circulating tumor cells Improved surgical technique	Risk-adopted postoperative surveillance programs Improved genetic profiling
Future perspectives of immunotherapy	Vaccination: whole tumor cell vaccines, peptide vaccines, viral vector vaccines, dendritic cell vaccines T-cell–stimulating therapy/checkpoint therapy		Adoptive cell transfer therapy

Abbreviations: 3D, 3-dimensional; CEA, carcinoembryonic antigen; CRC, colorectal cancer; EGFR, epidermal growth factor receptor; FU, fluorouracil; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; MSI, microsatellite instability; MSS, microsatellite stable.