Dr Volke Heinemann talks to ecancer managing editor, Prof Gordon McVie, at ASCO 2013 about the German phase III clinical trial FIRE-3. The study found that first-line cetuximab plus FOLFIRI chemotherapy (folinic acid, fluorouracil, irinotecan) offers a roughly four-month survival advantage for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, compared with bevacizumab plus FOLFIRI. The targeted drugs cetuximab and bevacizumab, both in combination with chemotherapy, are approved and commonly used as initial therapy. Until this study, it had been unclear which approach is better for patients with non-mutated forms of the KRAS gene.