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More clinical trials needed in metastatic colorectal cancer
NEW YORK — A significant amount of development in colorectal carcinoma treatment has occurred in recent years, but the 5-year OS rates are still low, according to a presenter at Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium.
Additionally, there are some concerns with options following disease progression after first-line treatment that include toxicities associated with prolonged therapy, according to the presenter.
“We need to identify those rare subsets in metastatic colorectal carcinoma patients where we can make a little bit of a difference by enrolling them in clinical trials and actually test the tumors of these rare subsets,” Cathy Eng, MD, professor in the department of gastrointestinal medical oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, said during her presentation.
Eng — who discussed possible options to optimize sequencing beyond disease progression — highlighted previous results from the TML, VELOUR and RAISE trials, which demonstrated moderate OS benefits with adding treatment to chemotherapy in the second-line setting.
Eng additionally highlighted that BRAF V600E mutations are found in approximately 7% of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and the need to determine better ways to overcome that mutation.
Patients with HER-2-amplification appear to be enriched in RAS-wild type metastatic colorectal cancer, and might result in reducing benefits associated with anti-EGFR treatments, according to Eng.
“Metastatic colorectal patients with HER-2 amplification have demonstrated ... shorter median PFS [than] nonamplified cases,” she said.
Eng concluded her discussion reiterating the importance of clinical trials and enrolling patients to further develop more treatments for metastatic colorectal cancer.
Reference:
Eng C. Separating the Curves: Optimized Sequencing Beyond Disease Progression in CRC. Presented at: Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium; Nov. 8-10, 2017; New York.
Disclosure: Eng reports no relevant financial disclosures.