Efficacy and safety of bevacizumab plus capecitabine and irinotecan regimen for metastatic colorectal cancer

Recent phase III trials have proven the fact that adding bevacizumab to irinotecan plus infusional 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)/leucovorin (LV) should be preferred as a first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). But, since the data regarding bevacizumab administered together with capecitabin, an oral fluoropyrimidine, and irinotecan in patients with mCRC is limited, we aimed to analyse the efficacy and safety of bevacizumab with capecitabine plus irinotecan (BEV-CAPIRI) regimen in mCRC patients. Records of patients treated with BEV-CAPIRI regimen between January 2005 and March 2008 were reviewed. Efficacy data regarding response rates (RR) as well as safety data were collected. Progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) analyses were done by using the Kaplan-Meier method. A total number of 53 metastatic colorectal cancer patients were treated with BEV-CAPIRI regimen. The median age of this population was 57.3 +/- 11.5 (range 29-78). The treatment was well tolerated. The RR was 43.3%, while 30.1% of the patients achieved stable disease (SD). Median PFS and OS were 12.6 +/- 1.4 and 20.6 +/- 1.7 months, respectively. However, median OS was 21.3 months for male and 14.6 months for female patients. In addition, median OS and PFS was 25.3 months and 16.2 months for the patients who received BEV-CAPIRI as first-line treatment, respectively, and for the other patients it was 15.2 months and 10.2 months, respectively. In conclusion, BEV-CAPIRI is an effective and well-tolerated alternative regimen for mCRC, leading to disease control in a vast majority of patients with mCRC.