Add Oxaliplatin to FP/BEV in Older Patients with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer?

Debate continues as to whether adding oxaliplatin to fluorinated pyrimidine/bevacizumab (FP/BEV) chemotherapy in older patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) achieves an additional meaningful clinical benefit. Investigators from Japan now report results of an open-label, randomized trial in patients with unresectable metastatic CRC, either aged 70 to 74 with ECOG-PS 2 or aged 75 and older with ECOG-PS 0 to 2.

The 251 participants were treated with infusional 5-FU/leucovorin or capecitabine plus bevacizumab (5–7.5 mg/kg every 2–3 weeks), with or without oxaliplatin (85–130 mg/m² every 2–3 weeks). Median age was 80 (age ≥75, 95% of patients; ECOG-PS 0–1, 93%; ECOG-PS2, 7%). Of the patients, 58% had two or more sites of metastasis, an…