Colon Cancer

Research

Mayo Clinic has been at the forefront of the search for more patient-friendly colorectal cancer screening procedures. Mayo research helped produce CT colonography, DNA stool tests and high-resolution confocal endomicroscopy, a method for distinguishing between benign and precancerous colon polyps without removing them for laboratory analysis.

Doctors at Mayo Clinic are also actively involved in clinical trials investigating new drugs or combinations of drugs to prevent the spread or recurrence of cancer. Their research was integral to the approval of oxaliplatin, a drug now commonly used in a regimen called FOLFOX to treat advanced colon and rectal cancers. Before the introduction of oxaliplatin, the Mayo Clinic-developed regimen of
5-fluorouracil and leucovorin served as a frequent standard to which other chemotherapy regimens were compared. Studies at Mayo Clinic have also shown that aggressive combination treatments with oxaliplatin are less beneficial to older colon cancer patients than they are to younger people with the disease.