Practical use of capecitabine plus oxaliplatin (CAPEOX) with bevacizumab for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer that cannot expect conversion therapy.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The cytotoxic regimens and bevacizumab (Bev) or anti-EGFR antibody are used for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) that can expect conversion therapy. In this paper, we would present our practical data including the response, survival and toxicity of the capecitabine plus oxaliplatin (CAPEOX) with Bev for mCRC that cannot expect conversion therapy. METHODOLOGY: Nineteen patients with mCRC who were treated with CAPEOX with Bev were enrolled. All the patients had the disseminated hepatic, lung, peritoneal metastases or distant lymph node metastasis assessed as no possibility of R0 resection. RESULTS: The median age was 66 (45-85) years old. Target lesion was liver and lung in 9 patients, peritoneum in 5 patients and distant lymph node in 3 patients. CAPEOX with Bev therapy was administered for a median of 8.0 cycles (range, 4-21 cycles). In the 16 evaluable cases, there were no patient with complete response (CR), 9 patients with partial response (PR), 6 with stable disease (SD), and 1 with progressive disease. The objective response rate (CR plus PR) was 56.3%, and disease control rate (CR, PR plus SD) was 93.8%. The median TTP was 9.3 months and the median OS was 21.1 months. No patients treated with surgery even though the good responses were obtained. No severe hematologic adverse toxicities were observed except only one case with grade 3 platelet decrease. Nonhematologic grade 3 events were observed totally 8 patients including 3 for peripheral neuropathy, 2 for bilirubin, and 1 for nausea/vomiting, amylase and stomatitis. CONCLUSIONS: We obtained the quite good results of CAPEOX plus Bev as the first-line treatment practically. This regimen might be useful for mCRC that cannot expect conversion therapy.