Capecitabine is a convenient, orally administered option for the treatment
of metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC), say researchers from the United States.
Dr Paulo Hoff (Anderson Cancer Centre, Texas) presented, on behalf of the capecitabine
CRC study group, pooled results from two phase III trials of capecitabine at
the 25th European Society for Medical Oncology in Hamburg recently. A total
of 1,207 subjects with metastatic colorectal cancer were randomised to receive
either oral capecitabine or a combination of intravenous fluorouracil and calcium
folinate.
The authors say that the median response rate seen with capecitabine was “significantly
superior” to that seen with fluorouracil and calcium folinate (25.5 and
16.7 per cent, respectively). Overall median survival and time to progression
was similar in both groups (approximately 13 and five months, respectively).
Side effects such as stomatitis, diarrhoea, nausea and alopecia were less common
with capecitabine than in the fluorouracil/calcium folinate group but hand-foot
syndrome (a localised skin condition) was seen more frequently.
Capecitabine is a fluoropyrimidine that is selectively converted into fluorouracil
in tumour tissue. Roche Pharmaceuticals, its manufacture, says it is likely
to be licensed in the United Kingdom for first-line treatment of metastatic
colorectal cancer early next year.