Weekly oxaliplatin, high-dose folinic acid and 24h-5-fluorouracil (FUFOX) as salvage therapy in metastatic colorectal cancer patients pretreated with irinotecan and folinic acid/5-fluorouracil regimens

Irinotecan (CPT-11), oxaliplatin (OXA) and different folinic acid (FA) modulated 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) regimens are active as first-and second-line chemotherapy of metastatic colorectal cancer. However, the best palliative sequence of these substances is still unclear. After CPT-11 containing regimens the optimal salvage protocol has not yet been defined. Here, we retrospectively analysed the weekly ambulant combination of OXA with continuous FA/5-FU (FUFOX) after two different CPT-11 containing chemotherapeutic regimens. Patients: During October 1999 and May 2001, 20 patients (median 62; 48-74 years) were included who had disease progression after CPT-11/bolus FA/5-FU (Saltz; 7 patients, group A) or after FA/5-FU followed by CPT-11 alone (13 patients, group B). OXA (60 mg/m(2)) was given for 2 hours prior to FA (500 mg/m2) as 2 h-infusion and continuous 5-FU (2.600 mg/m(2)) for 24 h-infusion on day 1, 8,15 and 22 (repeated after week 6). Results: FUFOX was administered 252 times. About 1,203 mg OXA per patient was given. Toxicities NCl-CTC grade 3 were observed in 10 patients: diarrhoea (4), mucositis (5), nausea/vomiting (2), anaemia (1), leucopenia (1), thrombopenia (1) and hand-foot-syndrome (1). 3 patients showed minor remissions, 11 patients stable disease. The median time to progression was 16 (0-39) weeks. The median survival from start of FUFOX and from start of any palliative therapy was 33 (5-65) and 99 (44200) weeks for all patients, respectively. Conclusions: FUFOX was efficient for additional tumour control in 70% of patients pretreated with CPT-11/5-FU based regimens. Sequential palliative treatment can lead to prolonged survival.