A phase II trial of gefitinib in combination with capecitabine and oxaliplatin as first-line chemotherapy in patients with advanced colorectal cancer

Objective: This study was designed as a multicentre phase II trial to assess the efficacy and safety of gefitinib in association with capecitabine and oxaliplatin in patients with untreated metastatic colorectal cancer. Research design and methods: Patients with metastatic colorectal cancer that had received no prior chemotherapy for advanced disease were treated with oral gefitinib (250 mg daily) plus oral capecitabine (1000mg/m2 twice a day on Days 1-14) and intravenous oxaliplatin (120mg/m2 on Day 1 of each 3-week cycle). Results: Thirty-five patients were enrolled. In the intention-to-treat analysis, 3 (8.6%) patients experienced a complete response (CR), 14 (40%) a partial response (PR) and 11 (31.4%) had stable disease (SD). The disease control rate (CR + PR + SD) was 80%, the median time to progression was 7.3 months (95%Cl: 4.76-9.2) and the estimated median overall survival was 21.9 months (95% Cl: 15.1-not reached). The most common grade 3 to 4 toxicities included diarrhoea (31%) and vomiting (5.7%). Conclusions: The combination of capecitabine, oxaliplatin and gefitinib appears to have promising activity in chemotherapy-naive metastatic colorectal cancer. A higher disease control rate and an increase in median overall survival were seen compared with previous reports with capecitabine and oxaliplatin in similar patient populations. The tolerability profile appears to be predictable and similar to capecitabine/oxaliplatin regimens. © 2007 Librapharm Limited.