From Evidence-based Medicine to Personalized Medicine

elderly population. The subgroup analysis of the NSABP C-07 trial showed a trend towards better disease-free survival in patients younger than age 70 (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95 % confidence interval, 0.68 to 0.95; P = 0.013), but no positive effect was evident in older patients with the addition of oxaliplatin to the FL regimen [10]. Even the NCCN guideline recommended that the oxaliplatin-based regimen not be used for elderly patients older than 70 years. Conversely, capecitabine showed a constant efficacy even in el-derly patients [11]. Lymph node metastasis is the single most important prognostic factor in colon cancer. It also determines the necessity of adjuvant chemotherapy in colon cancer. In the 7th American Joint Com-mittee on Cancer tumor-node-metastasis staging system [12], the 5-year survival of stage IIIA colon cancer was even better than that of stage IIA colon cancer, which raised the concerns abou