Colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed malignant tumor worldwide. Among which, stage II (T3-4N0M0) and stage III (TanyN1-2M0) diseases occupy a large proportion. Despite the significant improvements of oncologic outcomes in stage II-III colorectal cancer due to the development of surgery techniques and adjuvant therapy over the past decades, 30% of stage II and 50-60% of stage III colorectal cancer patients are reported to experience recurrence within 5 years after the operations.
In current colon cancer clinical management, stage III colon cancer patients, and selected high-risk stage II colon cancer patients are treated by six months of adjuvant chemotherapy treatment with oxaliplatin, 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin (FOLFOX) or capecitabine (XELOX), following complete surgical resection. Despite that adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT) is widely applied clinically with clearly established evidence of survival benefit for stage III colon cancer, its efficacy for stage II colon cancer is yet controversial. The famous Quick, Simple, and Reliable (QUASAR) prospective trial reports a pool survival benefit for patients with stage I–III colorectal cancer after ACT as compared to surgery alone; however, it fails to demonstrate the efficacy of ACT among stage II colon cancer subgroup. A wide clinical application of ACT in high-risk stage II colon cancer in spite of the uncertainty of survival benefit could result in the overtreatment or undertreatment, in addition, a significant patient morbidity could result from toxicity and side effects caused by adjuvant chemotherapy of overtreatment.

The therapeutic effects of colon cancer are still unsatisfactory, therefore, this Research Topic aims to investigate the clinical treatment methods (including ACT, surgery, targeted therapies and stem cell based therapies) in colon cancer to improve oncologic outcomes, especially in stage II and III colon cancer. Submissions of Original Research, Review articles, Opinions and Perspective articles about the progresses in the treatment of colon cancer are welcomed.

The scope of the Research Topic may include, but are not limited to:
- Prospective and retrospective clinical trials in stage II and III colon cancer.
- Improve surgical results of colon cancer.
- Clinical prediction models of survival benefit offered by chemotherapy in colon cancer.
- The choice of treatment (surgery and chemotherapy) in certain colon cancer patients.
- Prognostic prediction and survival analyses of colon cancer.
- The refinement of colon cancer staging system.
- Prognostic biomarkers in colon cancer.
- Experimental therapies including, but not limited to, immunotherapy, targeted therapies and stem cell-based therapies.

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Frontiers in Oncology

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