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Adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery for stage III colon cancer improves survival rates. Because as many as 40% of such patients ultimately will relapse and will die from cancer, the identification of molecular prognostic markers has been an area of active research. Overexpression of the enzyme thymidylate synthase (TS; the target for 5-fluorouracil [5-FU] chemotherapy), or of the regulatory protein p53, might be prognostic for survival in colorectal cancer patients.
A large prospective Chinese study involved more than 10,000 patients with colorectal cancer who were enrolled in an adjuvant chemotherapy trial at 200 sites. After resection, patients were randomized to receive either 7-day continuous infusion of 5-FU into the portal vein or no p…