Introduction
cancers, CRC, cancer death, cancer, Colorectal cancer
CANCERS, CANCER, METASTATIC DISEASE, MALIGNANCIES, COLORECTAL CANCER
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies, globally repre-senting the fourth most diagnosed cancer in the world, third in incidence in men and second in women. CRC is the third leading cause of cancer death in the world, consider-ing both men and women globallyIn about 25% of cases, it occurs as a metastatic disease already at diagnosis. In this setting, systemic treatments are considered the gold standard. Associations of fluoropy-rimidines with oxaliplatin and/or irinotecan and a biologic agent are commonly used in the first-line setting. Bevacizumab (Bev), a humanised monoclonal antibody directed against the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), was the first drug with a molec-ular target established in the first-line treatment of mCRCVEGF represents the main pro-angiogenic factor, and acts binding to specific recep-tors present on the membrane of endothelial cells, VEGFR-1 and VEGFR-2. This led to the variation of the structure of the cytoskeleton of the endothelial cells, with the consequent modification of the cell motility. VEGF expression is related to blood vessel formation and metastasization in various cancers.Several researchers assessed the role of The results of the abovementioned work needed to be confirmed in an independent case series, thus the present trial was designed to validate the role of these polymorphisms and haplotypes. If confirmed, these data could represent a valid selection criterion for candidates for treatment with Bev.