Newer Chemo Regimens Prolong Survival in Advanced Colorectal Cancer

Judith Groch
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

* Explain to patients who ask that this meta-analysis was based on group data, rather than individual patient information, so that conclusions about the value of certain regimens should be avoided for now.

* Explain that despite limited longer survival for patients treated with the newer drugs, toxicity and complication rates were high.

IOANNINA, Greece, Sept. 24 -- Today's newer chemotherapy drugs add months to the lives of patients with advanced colorectal cancer, but at a high cost in toxicity and complications, a meta-analysis showed.

For patients expected to live for a year when treated with fluorouracil and leucovorin (Welcovorin), the estimated absolute survival benefit of additional treatment with irinotecan (Camptosar) plus bevacizumab (Avastin) was an added eight months, John P.A. Ioannidis, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Ioannina here, and colleagues, reported online in the Sept. 20 issue of The Lancet Oncology.

Survival benefits of an added 4.7 months were also noted for the addition of oxaliplatin (Eloxatin) plus bevacizumab or for irinotecan plus oxaliplatin, the researchers said.

Newer chemotherapy drugs, such as irinotecan and oxaliplatin, and molecularly targeted agents such as bevacizumab and cetuzimab (Erbitux) have shown effectiveness in trials of patients with advanced colorectal cancer, but these drugs are highly toxic and the size of the benefits have not been measured, the researchers wrote.