Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of
cancer worldwide and has become one of the major human disease burdens. In clinical practice, the treatment of
colorectal cancer has been closely related to the use of
irinotecan.
Irinotecan combines with many other anticancer drugs and has a broader range of
drug combinations. Combination
therapy is one of the most important means of improving anti-
tumor efficacy and overcoming drug resistance. Reasonable combination
therapy can lead to better patient treatment options, and inappropriate combination
therapy will increase patient risk. For the colorectal therapeutic field, the significance of combination
therapy is to improve the efficacy, reduce the adverse effects, and improve the ease of treatment. Therefore, we explored the clinical advantages of its combination
therapy based on mechanism or metabolism and reviewed the rationale basis and its limitations in conducting exploratory clinical trials on
irinotecan combination
therapy, including the results of clinical trials on the combination potentiation of cytotoxic drugs, targeted agents, and herbal medicine. We hope that these can evoke more efforts to conduct
irinotecan in the laboratory for further studies and evaluations, as well as the possibility of more in-depth development in future clinical trials.