It doesn’t hurt to stop XELOX chemotherapy combined with Avastin after six treatments and continue with Avastin alone until colorectal cancer gets worse, according to a study reported at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.

Many patients have to stop oxaliplatin chemotherapy with before getting its maximum effectiveness because of peripheral neuropathy — tingling, numbness, or pain in their hands and feet.  Xeloda® (capecitabine) can cause painful skin redness and cracking on the hands and feet or hand-foot syndrome, which can also affect time on chemotherapy.

Giving only six treatments of Avastin® (bevacizumab) plus XELOX chemotherapy and then stopping XELOX and using only Avastin until cancer progressed was as effective for the initial or first-line treatment of colorectal cancer as continuing XELOX.  XELOX combines Xeloda® (capecitabine) with oxaliplatin.

In addition, the strategy reduced both severe peripheral neuropathy and hand-foot syndrome.

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Colorectal cancer patients 65 and older without other serious medical problems benefitted when Avastin® (bevacizumab) was added to chemotherapy.

Combining results of four randomized clinical trials of Avastin and chemotherapy in patients with advanced colorectal cancer, researchers found that adding Avastin increased both the time older patients lived and the time before their cancer got worse.

Patients who were 70 and older had similar improvements. Read the rest of this entry »

Colorectal cancer patients whose CEA blood tests rise at the beginning of chemotherapy and then fall (CEA flare) do better than patients with a consistently rising CEA.   CEA flares don’t necessarily predict worsening cancer.

Compared to patients with consistently rising carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), patients who had a CEA flare had more tumor shrinkage, longer time before their cancer got worse, and longer survival time. Read the rest of this entry »

Research this week finds FDG/PET able to predict response to chemotherapy even after one treatment, and chemotherapy before surgery for liver mets makes CT scan evaluation less accurate.

Finding the best imaging methods to diagnosis and monitor cancer and comparing new colorectal cancer screening technologies to current standards are among recommended priorities for comparative effectiveness research (CER).  The FDA reports new egg safety rules and the recall of a powdered dietary supplement.

Videos of cancer patients are now online discussing the emotional impact of their diagnosis in The Day I Found Out. Read the rest of this entry »

Patients who had tumors shrink in response to chemotherapy given before they had surgery for colorectal cancer that had spread to their livers had no better long-term survival than patients whose cancer remained the same or even got worse.

Doctors in New York followed 111 patients who had chemotherapy before surgery to remove liver metastases (neoadjuvant chemotherapy). After five years of follow-up, median overall survival was 62 months.  Overall survival was similar in three different groups:  those who had a complete or partial response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, those whose tumors remained stable, and those whose cancer progressed during chemotherapy. Read the rest of this entry »