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• Resected colon-rectal cancers (RCRC) with microsatellite instability (MSI) have a better prognosis than stable colon-rectal cancers. • The benefit of standard fluoropyrimidine-based adjuvant chemotherapy treatment is a topic of discussion in stage II and III MSI RCRC. • We have collected evidence on the benefit of adjuvant treatment in MSI patients and we propose our therapeutic strategy in order to simplify clinical practice. Adjuvant chemotherapy with fluoropyrimidine (FP) plus oxaliplatin in stage III resected colorecatal cancer (RCRC) resulted in a 30% relative reduction of disease recurrence risk and mortality. The presence of altered mismatch repair genes identify tumors with microsatellite instability (MSI) that have a better prognosis than stable tumors, but data about adjuvant chemotherapy benefit in this subgroup are compelling. We investigate the role of adjuvant therapy in resected MSI RCRC. The standard treatment is the association of FP plus oxaliplatin, while it can avoided in low risk stage II, thanks to its good prognosis. We propose a practice strategy to approach MSI RCRC in line with the current knowledge. In consideration of the dramatic results in chemorefractory MSI metastatic CRC, there are assumptions that immunotherapy can become a potential alternative to classical systemic therapies also in the adjuvant setting. We await the results of ongoing studies to draw further conclusions." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outcome of pancreatic cancer is poor, with a 9% 5-year survival rate. Current treatment recommendations in the 10%–20% of patients who present with resectable disease support upfront resection followed by adjuvant therapy. Until now, only early complete surgical (R0) resection and adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) with either FOLFIRINOX (5-fluorouracil, leucovorin, irinotecan, and oxaliplatin) or nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine have been shown to prolong the survival. However, up to 30% of patients do not receive adjuvant therapy because of the development of early recurrence, postoperative complications, comorbidities, and reduced performance status. The aims of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) are to identify rapidly progressing patients to avoid futile surgery, eliminate micrometastases, increase the feasibility of R0 resection, and ensure the completion of multimodal treatment. Neoadjuvant treatments are effective, but there is no consensus on their use in resectable pancreatic cancer (RPC) because of its lack of a survival benefit over adjuvant therapy. In this review, we analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the two therapeutic approaches in RPC. We need studies that compare the two approaches and can identify the appropriate sequence of adjuvant therapy after neoadjuvant treatment and surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]