Fluorouracil-based Therapy May Cure Colon Cancer

---

---

---

Adjuvant fluorouracil-based chemotherapy can lead to significant disease-free survival in colon cancer patients and may do even better in some, scientists report in an advance on-line issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

As lead investigator Dr. Daniel Sargent told Reuters Health, "The primary clinical implications of this research are that adjuvant fluorouracil-based therapy actually cures colon cancer patients -- as opposed to simply delaying a recurrence -- and that most relapses occur in the first 2 years after surgery".

Dr. Sargent of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, and his colleagues analyzed data from 18 trials involving more than 20,800 patients with stage II or III colon cancer. The scientists observed a significant benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy over 8 years of follow-up.

Significant disease-free survival benefit was seen in the first 2 years. However, after this point there were no significant differences from untreated controls.

Nevertheless, the recurrence rates were less than 1.5% per year after 5 years, and 0.5% per year after 8 years. "The risk of recurrence in patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy never exceeds that of control patients, signifying that adjuvant chemotherapy cures some patients," the researchers explain.

Ultimately, they say, the adjuvant approach "leads to an approximate 10% cure rate in the pooled population of high-risk stage II and III patients included in these trials."

"These findings," Dr. Sargent concluded, "can help inform patients, and should guide how often and for how long patients should return to their oncologist for follow-up".

Posted by: Sue