Colon cancer remains one of the most important causes of death among cancer patients. Because for colon cancer there is not a treatment that once applied can actually cure the disease, new researches and treatments have been developed. New drugs which are administrated in chemotherapy sessions allow people with advanced colon cancer live many years after the diagnosis was made. Even if the cancer is not completely cured, many months can be added to the period of life for an individual. These new treatments for colon cancer and small improvements made in the research regarding this disease can make a huge difference for those who were diagnosed with one of the colon cancer stages.

New treatments for colon cancer can increase the time of life for those patients who have developed colon cancer metastases, and new when diagnosed in the last stage of the disease, people are more optimistic. For many years it was believed that the most useful drug for colon cancer treatment is 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin. Today things have chanced a little. Camptosar or irinotecan was approved to be used for people with metastatic colon cancer. Eloxatin or oxaliplatin was also approved in 2002 which can increase the survival rates for colon cancer last stage with almost 11 percent as a recent study showed.

The biggest issue with chemotherapy is that is can not be focused on one part of the body, on the cancerous tumors, and so the drugs go through the whole body affecting other cells. This is way some regimens have been developed by doctors where many different drugs are combined. In IFL case, studies have shown that its use in not benefic for colon cancer patients, so in the United States it is not used anymore. Here IFL is considered more toxic and less effective than Folfex or Folfiri. Avastin has also been used as a new colon cancer drug and this medicine combined with Erbitux can be used for curing cancer in the earliest stages.

However, there is a problem with the new treatments for colon cancer. They can cost a lot, and not everyone can afford buying them. For example Avastin and Erbitux are extremely expensive. A colon cancer treatment using this two drugs will cost for the metastiatic phase of the disease at least $ 161 000, which is an enormous amount of money compared to the actual price of the treatment. Anyway in the last years the treatment has already grown its price. So, the situation created in not an easy one. Some people must decide between their cure and their family financial ruin because medical insurance does not cover more than 20 percent of this cost and so the other part must be paid form the patient pocket.