A combination of Xeloda and Eloxatin (XELOX) was better than standard 5-FU and leucovorin chemotherapy in reducing recurrences of stage III colon cancer after surgery.  Significantly more patients receiving XELOX were alive without cancer three years after treatment began.

Roche announced results of a Phase III clinical trial that compared XELOX chemotherapy to bolus 5-FU and leucovorin.  The trial, nicknamed XELOXA (NO16968), enrolled almost 1,900 patients in 29 countries.

Its primary goal was to see if combining the oral drug Xeloda® (capecitabine) with Eloxatin® (oxaliplatin) could improve disease-free survival for stage III colon cancer patients. Read the rest of this entry »

Infusional 5-FU or oral Xeloda® (capecitabine) are two different drugs that can be combined with Eloxatin® (oxaliplatin) to treat colorectal cancer that has spread.  Six different randomized clinical trials have compared the two approaches.

Researchers analyzed a pool of all six trials to find out if one approach is better than the other. While they found that there are different side effects, the time until cancer gets worse (progression-free survival) and overall survival time are the same.

The percentage of patients who got infusional 5-FU  and had their tumors shrink (response rate) was greater than those who had shrinkage with capecitabine .  However, this did not translate into better progression-free interval or longer survival time. Read the rest of this entry »

An immediate switch from 5-FU treatment to Xeloda® (capecitabine) for stage III colon cancer caused so much toxicity that a trial designed to test patient preferences for treatment had to be stopped.

Patients in the Patient Preference in Adjuvant Therapy (PACT) trial who switched after 6 weeks from weekly 5-FU with leucovorin to oral capecitabine experienced excessive side effects. The trial was designed to determine which approach to treatment patients liked best. Read the rest of this entry »