Does adding Erbitux to chemotherapy help people whose colorectal cancer has spread beyond the colon or rectum to distant body sites?

The answer is yes, according to a pooled analysis of two large randomized clinical trials comparing chemotherapy alone to chemotherapy plus Erbitux® (cetuximab).  However, benefits depend on whether or not patient tumors have mutations of two genes, KRAS and BRAF.

Previous studies have shown that only patients with normal or wild type KRAS get any benefit from EGFR inhibitors Erbitux or Vectibix™ (panitumumab) so a combined analysis of the CRYSTAL and OPUS studies looked only a outcomes in KRAS wild type tumors.  In addition, the research team studied the effect of mutations to BRAF.

They found that adding Erbitux to initial chemotherapy improved overall survival time, time until cancers got worse (progression-free survival), the percent of tumors that shrank with treatment (overall response rate) for tumors with wild-type KRAS.  The best outcomes were in patients who had both wild-type KRAS and wild-type BRAF. Read the rest of this entry »

FOBT screening saves lives, but only when it is done right.

Three out of four primary care doctors did a fecal occult blood test once during an office visit, a method that is ineffective in finding cancer or preventing death from colorectal cancer. One out of four used the in-office test exclusively.

Less than half of doctors had a system in place to be sure that home tests were completed and returned.  Read the rest of this entry »

In a surprising results, doctors studying surgical complications and hospital deaths after colorectal surgery found that diabetic patients do better than non-diabetics after surgery.

There was a 23 percent reduction in deaths after surgery for diabetics and 18 percent fewer complications.

Unfortunately, this improvement in outcomes did not extend to the uninsured or to people under 50. Read the rest of this entry »

German scientists have identified a gene that has higher levels in colon cancer patients whose tumors are destined to spread. By initiating a signaling pathway in the cancer cell, MACC1 (Metastasis-Associated in Colon Cancer 1) promotes faster cell growth and cancer spread  to distant sites in the body (metastasis) .

Their research was published online in Nature Medicine.

About a third of patients whose cancer is found in early stages will eventually have it spread to other organs.  Measuring MACC1 may help doctors identify those patients, treat them more aggressively, and follow them  more closely. Read the rest of this entry »

Patients who developed hypertension with Avastin® (bevacizumab) had better response to treatment for colorectal cancer.  More had tumors shrink, and it took significantly longer for their cancer to get worse.

In a small Italian study, researchers measured blood pressure in 39 patients receiving Avastin along with irinotecan and 5-FU for the initial treatment of colorectal cancer.  Eight patients (20 percent) experienced grade 2 or 3 hypertension. Read the rest of this entry »