Study: Older Drug Helps Xeloda Fight Advanced Colorectal Cancer

The addition of an older drug boosts the capacity of Xeloda (capecitabine) to fight advanced colorectal cancer with little impact on the type and number of side effects, according to British and Australian researchers.

The findings on capecitabine, a newer oral chemotherapy drug, were presented at the European Cancer Conference.

Capecitabine was coupled with mitomycin M, an earlier generation chemotherapy drug, because capecitabine is converted to its active form by the enzyme thymidine phosphorylase (TP), which is boosted by mitomycin M within the tumor.

The combination effectively increases the power of capecitabine to interfere with tumor growth, said Dr. Sheila Rao of the Royal Marsden Hospital in London

Rao presented one study that assessed the combination as a first-line therapy in patients with advanced colorectal cancer, and a second that used the combination as a last resort for patients who were resistant to 5-fluorouracil and irinotecan, two other chemotherapy drugs.

In the first-line study of 64 patients, the median overall survival was 14.7 months and the median disease-free survival was 7.2 months. In the other study of 31 patients, median overall survival was 8.44 months and median disease-free survival was 5.75 months.

The drug combination still needs more testing, Rao said, but it appears to be "on a par with many of the combination regimens [now in use]," and appears to be better than some.

Other sources: European Cancer Conference