Background and Objectives: To compare pathologic complete response (pCR) in patients with advanced rectal cancer receiving neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NACT) by 5-FU or Xeloda (capecitabine) with and without Eloxatin (oxaloplatin injection). Materials and Methods: Seventy-five consecutive patients with the diagnosis of advanced rectal adenocarcinoma were included. Two basic chemotherapy r...

background and objectives: to compare pathologic complete response (pcr) in patients with advanced rectal cancer receiving neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nact) by 5-fu or xeloda (capecitabine) with and without eloxatin (oxaloplatin injection). materials and methods: seventy-five consecutive patients with the diagnosis of advanced rectal adenocarcinoma were included. two basic chemotherapy regi...

Significant emphasis has been placed recently on designing more effective fluorouracil (5-FU)-based combination protocols for gastrointestinal cancer. Promising results were seen with 5-FU/leucovorin in combination with irinotecan (Camptosar) or oxaliplatin (Eloxatin), especially in colorectal cancer. Clinical trials of UFT, with or without leucovorin, demonstrate the safety of this regimen and...

Metastasized rectal cancer has long been considered incurable. During recent years, the treatment of rectal cancer patients has been improved, and nowadays, a subgroup of patients might even be cured. The aim of this study was to investigate the optimal timing of treatment in a multimodal therapy schedule in order to see whether the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to conventional chemotherapy...

No adequate second- or third-line therapy is available in the United States for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and disease progression following treatment with fluorouracil (5-FU)-based therapy and an irinotecan (CPT-11, Camptosar)-containing regimen, or a combination of the two. Oxaliplatin (Eloxatin), a new platinum analog, has demonstrated high activity in the treatment of colore...

The Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) currently sponsors more than 160 Investigational New Drug applications (INDs), and is involved in approximately 1,600 active protocols. It is also currently involved in more than 50 collaborative agreements with pharmaceutical companies. These agreements consist of cooperative research and development agreements...

A significant number of patients with colorectal cancer will present with hepatic metastases as their only site of metastatic disease. Surgical resection in patients with a limited number of metastases will lead to long-term survival in up to one-third. However, following surgery, many of these patients will relapse within the liver, and many will develop extrahepatic metastases. The use of hep...

Advanced cancer in the setting of liver dysfunction poses a dilemma for physicians, as many cancer chemotherapeutic agents undergo hepatic metabolism. Most cytotoxic drugs have a narrow therapeutic index, and the administration of chemotherapy to patients with liver impairment results in complicated safety issues. We present a concise review of cancer chemotherapy dosing in the setting of liver...