BMC Cancer 2005, 5:132 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/5/132 new treatment are not insignificant and future studies will also need to clearly demonstrate cost effectiveness as well as efficacy in an environment where the costs of treating patients with colorectal cancer are rapidly escalating [16]. References 1. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Australasian Association of Cancer Registries (AACR): Cancer in Australia 2000 Canberra: AIHW; 2003. 2. Pisani P, Parkin DM, Bray F, Ferlay J: Estimates of the worldwide mortality from 25 cancers in 1990. Int J Cancer 1999, 83:18-29. 3. Weiss L, Grundmann E, Torhorst J, Harveit F, Moberg I, Eder M, Fenoglio-Preiser C, Napier J, et al.: Haematogenous Metastasis patterns in colonic carcinoma: An analysis of 1541 necropsies. J Pathol 1986, 150:195-203. 4. Ingold JA, Reed GB, Kaplan HS, Bagshaw MA: Radiation hepatitis. AM J Roentgenol Radium Ther Nucl Med 1965, 03:200-208. 5. Lawrence TS, Robertson JM, Anscher MS, Jirtle RL, Ensminger WD, Fajardo LF: Hepatic toxicity resulting from cancer treatment. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 1995, 31:1237-48. 6. Gray BN, Anderson JE, Burton MA, van Hazel G, Codde J, Morgan C, et al.: Regression of liver metastases following treatment with yttrium-90 microspheres. Aust N Z J Surg 1992, 62:105-10. 7. Gray B, Van Hazel G, Hope M, Burton M, Moroz P, Anderson J, Geb- ski V: Randomised trial of SIR-Spheres plus chemotherapy vs. chemotherapy alone for treating patients with liver metas- tases from primary large bowel cancer. Ann Oncol 2001, 12:1711-20. 8. Lau WY, Ho S, Leung TW, Chan M, Ho R, Johnson PJ, Li AK: Selec- tive internal radiation therapy for nonresectable hepatocel- lular carcinoma with intraarterial infusion of 90yttrium microspheres. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 1998, 40:583-92. 9. Lim L, Gibbs P, Yip D, Shapiro JD, Dowling R, Smith D, Little A, Bailey W, Liechtenstein M: A prospective study of treatment with Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIR spheres) in patients with unresectable primary or secondary hepatic malignancies. Internal Medicine Journal . (in press-to be published in April 2005 edition of Internal Medicine Journal) 10. Rougier P, Van Custem E, Bajetta E, et al.: Randomised trial of iri- notecan versus fluorouracil by continuous infusion after fluorouracil failure in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Lancet 1998, 352:1407-1412. 11. Rothenberg ML, Oza AM, Bigelow RH, et al.: Superiority of oxali- platin and fluorouracil-leucovorin compared with either therapy alone in patients with progressive colorectal cancer after irinotecan and fluorouracil-leucovorin: Interim results of a phase III trial. J Clin Oncol 2003, 21:2059-2069. 12. Cunningham D, Humblet Y, Siena S, Khayat D, Bleiberg H, Santoro A, Bets D, Mueser M, Harstrick A, Verslype C, Chau I, Van Cutsem E: Cetuximab monotherapy and cetuximab plus irinotecan in irinotecan-refractory metastatic colorectal cancer. N Engl J Med 2004, 351:337-45. 13. Saltz L, Meropol NJ, Loehrer PJ, Needle M, Kopit J, Mayer RJ: Phase II Trial of Cetuximab in Patients With Refractory Colorectal Cancer That Expresses the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor. J Clin Oncol 2004, 22:1201-1208. 14. Stubbs RS, Cannan RJ, Mitchell AW: Selective internal radiation therapy with 90yttrium microspheres for extensive colorec- tal liver metastases. J Gastrointest Surg 2001, 5:294-302. 15. Sirtex Medical Limited: SIR-Spheres Product Monograph, Sydney 2002 [http://www.sirtex.com.au/p=77]. 16. Scrag D: The price tag on progress chemotherapy for color- ectal cancer. N Engl J Med 2004, 351(4):317-9. Pre-publication history The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/5/132/pre pub Publish with Bio Med Central and every scientist can read your work free of charge "BioMed Central will be the most significant development for disseminating the results of biomedical research in our lifetime." Sir Paul Nurse, Cancer Research UK Your research papers will be: available free of charge to the entire biomedical community peer reviewed and published immediately upon acceptance cited in PubMed and archived on PubMed Central yours — you keep the copyright Submit your manuscript here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/publishing_adv.asp BioMedcentral Page 6 of 6 (page number not for citation purposes)