OBJECTIVETo evaluate the safety and preliminary efficacy of dose-modified regimen of 5-fluorouracil plus oxaliplatin and irinotecan (mFOLFOXIRI) for patients with advanced colorectal cancer (CRC).

METHODSData of 312 CRC patients confirmed by pathology receiving triplet drug alone or combined with target therapy between October 2012 and December 2016 at the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University were retrospectively analyzed. CRC patients who had previously completed adjuvant therapy (or neoadjuvant therapy) within 6 months or palliative chemotherapy were excluded, meanwhile those with poor general condition (ECOG score > 2) or grade 2 neuropathy and allergy to oxaliplatin were excluded as well. Regimen of mFOLFOXIRI: oxaliplatin 85 mg/m² dissolved in 5% glucose solution 500 ml by intravenous infusion for 2 h; irinotecan 150 to 165 mg/m² dissolved in 0.9% sodium chloride 250 ml by intravenous infusion for 90 min; following intravenous infusion of leucovorin 400 mg/m² for 2 h, day 1; 5-FU 2800 mg/m², 48-h continuous intravenous infusion; once every 2 weeks. Therapy could be combined with a targeted drug, bevacizumab 5 mg/kg every two weeks; cetuximab 500 mg/m² every two weeks. Side effect was graded using the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (NCI CTCAE 4.0.3). The objective response rate was evaluated according to the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST 1.1) after administering at least four cycles of chemotherapy.

RESULTSThe median age was 52 years (range 16-73) in the whole group; 113 patients (36.2%) had locally advanced CRC, and 199 (63.8%) had metastatic CRC. Most patients (274/312, 87.8%) did not receive any treatment earlier. There were a total of 1651 chemotherapy cycles in the whole group, with a median of 6(1-19) cycles. Of these 1651 cycles, 124 cycles of chemotherapy(7.5%) were dose-adjusted; 176 cycles of chemotherapy(10.7%) were delayed for median 5(3-13) days; 124 cycles(7.5%) required dose decrease. The overall relative dose intensity was >90%; the specific drug dose intensity was 93.6%(2620 mg×m⁻²×d⁻¹) for fluorouracil, 97.8%(83 mg×m⁻²×d⁻¹) for oxaliplatin, and 94.2%(155 mg×m⁻²×d⁻¹) for irinotecan. Twenty-three patients (7 of intestinal perforation, 7 of intestinal obstruction, 1 of grade 4 hematologic toxicity, and 8 of grade 3 fatigue) refused subsequent chemotherapy due to intolerable toxicity. Main grade 3 or 4 adverse events in patients were neutropenia in 69 cases (22.1%), fatigue in 35 cases (11.2%), and anemia in 28 cases (8.9%). Twenty serious adverse events (6.4%) occurred, including 13 patients of febrile neutropenia (4.2%), 7 patients of intestinal perforation (2.2%, 4 patients in upper rectum, 2 in sigmoid colon, and 1 in transverse colon cancer), and 9 of them had subsequent sepsis (2.9%). All the patients with intestinal perforation underwent emergency operation. No treatment-related deaths occurred. In 199 patients with metastatic CRC, because 22 patients did not receive image evaluation, the preliminary efficacy of 177 patients was actually evaluated. A total of 113 objective response events were observed. The overall response rate was 63.8%(113/177), partial response rate was 61.6%(109/177), clinically complete response rate was 2.3%(4/177), stable disease was 29.9% (53/177), progressive disease was 6.2%(11/177), and the disease control rate was 93.8%(166/177). In 127 patients receiving triplet drug, objective response rate was 40.9% for those with less than four cycles and 81.1% for those with more than four cycles (P<0.001).

CONCLUSIONThe mFOLFOXIRI regimen with reduced dose can be safely used in advanced CRC and has achieved promising results in terms of short-term efficacy.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Camptothecin ; administration & dosage ; analogs & derivatives ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; Fluorouracil ; administration & dosage ; Humans ; Leucovorin ; administration & dosage ; Middle Aged ; Organoplatinum Compounds ; administration & dosage ; Retrospective Studies ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo explore efficacy and safety of modified FOLFIRINOX (mFOLFIRINOX) regimen by dose attenuation in locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) and metastatic pancreatic cancer(MPC).

METHODSBetween April 2014 and October 2015, 35 patients with LAPC (n=18) or MPC (n=17) were treated with mFOLFIRINOX regimen (irinotecan 135 mg/m(2), oxaliplatin 68 mg/m(2), 5-FU 2 400 mg/m(2), no bolus of 5-FU, leucovorin 400 mg/m(2)) in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine. The primary end point was progression free survival. The second end points were overall survival, objective response rate, adverse effects, surgical resection rate for LAPC.

RESULTSAmong 35 patients, 6 patients (17.1%) who dropped out and received less than 2 cycles were excluded for response analysis. Among the other 29 patients, 9 patients had grade 3 or 4 adverse effects. No patients ceased treatment due to adverse effects. The 29 patients received 5 (2-13) cycles were evaluated by efficacy and found partial remission in 16 cases, stable disease in 10 cases, progression disease in 3 cases. Response rate was 55.2%. Nine patients with LAPC accomplished surgery after neoadjuvant treatment without perioperative complication and death, and 6 patients accepted R0 resection.

CONCLUSIONSThe mFOLFIRINOX regimen used in the study is well-tolerated in Chinese population with high treatment efficacy on patients with LAPC and MPC. Further investigation of efficacy and adverse effects on more advanced pancreatic cancer patients is necessary.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; Camptothecin ; administration & dosage ; analogs & derivatives ; Disease Progression ; Disease-Free Survival ; Fluorouracil ; administration & dosage ; Humans ; Leucovorin ; administration & dosage ; Neoadjuvant Therapy ; Organoplatinum Compounds ; administration & dosage ; Pancreatic Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; Tertiary Care Centers ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVETo analyze the relationship between primary tumor location and clinical response of chemotherapy in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer(mCRC).

METHODSClinical data of 721 mCRC patients who received first-line and second-line chemotherapy in Peking University Cancer Hospital between January 1996 and December 2011 were collected. All the patients were divided into 5 groups according to primary tumor location: ileocecum in 61 patients(8.5%), ascending colon or hepatic flexure in 126 patients (17.5%), transverse colon or splenic flexure in 26 patients (3.6%), descending or sigmoid colon in 172 patients (23.9%), rectum in 336 patients (46.6%). Outcomes of chemotherapy were evaluated by Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST, version 1.1), including complete response (CR), partial response (PR), stable disease (SD) and progressive disease (PD). The overall response rate (ORR) was counted with the total number of patients divided by the number of CR+PR. Differences in first-line and second-line chemotherapy efficacy among different primary tumor sites in metastatic colorectal cancer were compared by using Chi-square test.

RESULTSOf the 571 patients receiving first-line chemotherapy, no one patient was classified as CR, while there were 190 as PR (33.3%), 277 as SD (48.5%) and 104 as PD (18.2%), with ORR 33.3% (190/571). The ORRs of patients with primary tumor located at ileocecum, ascending colon or hepatic flexure, transverse colon or splenic flexure, descending or sigmoid colon, rectum were 21.3% (10/47), 35.3% (36/102), 14.3% (3/21), 41.3% (57/138) and 31.9% (84/263), respectively, with statistically significant difference(P = 0.028). Difference of oxaliplatin-based first-line chemotherapy efficacy among different tumor sites was statistically significant(P = 0.009), while differences in irinotecan-based or single-agent 5-fluorouracil chemotherapy efficacy were not statistically significant (all P>0.05). In patients with primary tumor located at transverse colon or splenic flexure, irinotecan-based first-line chemotherapy had higher ORR than oxaliplatin-based or single-agent 5-fluorouracil chemotherapy, and the difference was statistically significant (P=0.042). There was no significant difference in the efficacy of different first-line chemotherapy regimens in patients with primary tumor located at other sites (all P>0.05). Of the 353 patients receiving second-line chemotherapy, no one patient was classified as CR, while there were 43 as PR (12.2%), 187 as SD (53.0%) and 123 as PD (34.8%), with ORR 12.2%(43/353). The ORRs of patients with primary tumor located at the ileocecum, the ascending colon or the hepatic flexure, the transverse colon or the splenic flexure, the descending or sigmoid colon, the rectum were 4.2%(1/24), 12.1%(8/66), 8.3%(1/12), 15.2%(12/79) and 12.3%(21/171) respectively, without statistically significant difference (P=0.686). Differences in second-line chemotherapy efficacy with the same regimen among different tumor sites were not statistically significant, and there were also no significant differences of efficacy of different second-line chemotherapy regimens in patients with the same tumor site (all P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONThere are differences in first-line chemotherapy efficacy among different primary tumor sites in metastatic colorectal cancer, while their second-line chemotherapy efficacy is equivalent.

Aged ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; therapeutic use ; Camptothecin ; analogs & derivatives ; Colon, Sigmoid ; Colon, Transverse ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; Female ; Fluorouracil ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Organoplatinum Compounds ; therapeutic use ; Rectum ; Retrospective Studies

Preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) has become an important component of comprehensive treatment for rectal cancer. Although local recurrent risk has been remarkably reduced by CRT, distant metastasis remains the main cause of therapeutic failure. Therefore, more and more studies focused on controlling distant metastasis in order to prolong long-term survival. Recently, CRT has achieved certain progression in rectal cancer: (1)Patients with stage T3 should be classified into specific subgroups to formulate individualized treatment regimen. For stage T3a, it is feasible to perform surgery alone or administrate low intensity preoperative CRT; for stage T3b and T3c, conventional preoperative CRT should be performed in order to reduce the risk of recurrence postoperatively. (2)With regard to combined regimen for chemotherapy, oral capecitabine superiors to intravenous bolus 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and is comparable to continuous intravenous infusion 5-FU with a better safety. Therefore, capecitabine is recommended for older patients and those with poor tolerance to chemotherapy. Compared to single 5-FU concurrent CRT, addition of oxaliplatin into preoperative CRT may result in a higher survival benefit in Chinese patients. As to the application of irinotecan, bevacizumab or cetuximab, unless there are more evidence to confirm their efficacy and safety from randomized controlled trial, they should not be recommended for adding to preoperative CRT routinely. (3)On the optimization in CRT pattern, the application values of induction chemotherapy before concurrent CRT, consolidation chemotherapy after concurrent CRT, neoadjuvant sandwich CRT, neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone and short-course preoperative radiotherapy remain further exploration. (4)On the treatment strategy for clinical complete response (cCR) after CRT, whether "wait and see" strategy is able to be adopted, it is still a hot topic with controversy.
Antineoplastic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Bevacizumab ; therapeutic use ; Camptothecin ; analogs & derivatives ; therapeutic use ; Capecitabine ; therapeutic use ; Cetuximab ; therapeutic use ; Chemoradiotherapy ; Deoxycytidine ; Fluorouracil ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Neoadjuvant Therapy ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; Neoplasm Staging ; Organoplatinum Compounds ; therapeutic use ; Preoperative Care ; Rectal Neoplasms ; surgery ; therapy

No abstract available.
Angiogenesis Inhibitors/administration & dosage ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/therapeutic use ; Bevacizumab/administration & dosage ; Camptothecin/analogs & derivatives/therapeutic use ; Colonic Neoplasms/*diagnosis/drug therapy/pathology ; Colonoscopy ; Female ; Fluorouracil/therapeutic use ; Humans ; Leucovorin/therapeutic use ; Liver Neoplasms/drug therapy/pathology/secondary ; Lung Neoplasms/drug therapy/pathology/secondary ; Middle Aged ; Positron-Emission Tomography ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of irinotecan based FOLFIRI chemotherapy as a second-line treatment after failure of FOLFOX-4 chemotherapy in patients with advanced gastric cancer. METHODS: Fifty-two patients who were pathologically diagnosed with unresectable gastric cancer and received FOLFIRI chemotherapy after failure of FOLFOX-4 chemotherapy between September 2005 and February 2012 were enrolled in this study. Data were collected by retrospectively reviewing the medical records. The response to chemotherapy was assessed every 3 cycles by World Health Organization criteria and long term survival was analyzed. The toxicities were evaluated for every course of chemotherapy according to National Cancer Institution (NCI) toxicity criteria version 3.0. RESULTS: Median age of the patients was 57 years. Median overall survival (OS) and time to progression (TTP) were 7.8 and 5 months, respectively. The number of patients showing complete remission, partial remission, stable disease, and progressive disease were 0 (0.0%), 9 (17.3%), 30 (57.7%), and 13 (25.0%), respectively. The overall response rate was 17.3%. During a total of 345 cycles, anemia worse than NCI toxicity grade 3 occurred in 2.9%, leukopenia in 20.3%, neutropenia in 12.2%, and thrombocytopenia in 1.5%. Patients with less organ involvement by metastasis, less than 34 U/mL of CA 19-9 and good responsiveness to third cycle of second line chemotherapy were associated with longer OS and TTP. CONCLUSIONS: FOLFIRI chemotherapy has a modest efficacy with acceptable toxicities in patients with advanced gastric cancer as a second-line treatment. Further well-controlled studies are needed to elucidate the efficacy of FOLFIRI chemotherapy as second-line treatment in patients with advanced stomach cancer.
Adult ; Aged ; Anemia/etiology ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/adverse effects/*therapeutic use ; Camptothecin/adverse effects/*analogs & derivatives/therapeutic use ; Disease Progression ; Female ; Fluorouracil/adverse effects/therapeutic use ; Humans ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Leucovorin/adverse effects/therapeutic use ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Organoplatinum Compounds/adverse effects/therapeutic use ; Retrospective Studies ; Stomach Neoplasms/*drug therapy/mortality/pathology ; Treatment Outcome

No abstract available.
Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/*therapeutic use ; Camptothecin/*analogs & derivatives/therapeutic use ; Female ; Fluorouracil/therapeutic use ; Humans ; Leucovorin/therapeutic use ; Male ; Organoplatinum Compounds/therapeutic use ; Stomach Neoplasms/*drug therapy

OBJECTIVETo explore the effect of Shengjiang Xiexin Decoction (SXD) on the intestinal mucosal and functional cells of rats after irinotecan (CPT-11) chemotherapy.

METHODSTotally 24 healthy Sprague-Dawley (SD) male rats were divided into three groups, the normal control group, the CPT-11 group, the SXD combined CPT-11 group according to random digit table, 8 in each group. CPT-11 was injected at the daily dose of 150 mg/kg to rats in the CPT-11 group and the SXD combined CPT-11 group from the caudal vein on the 4th day, once daily for 2 successive days to duplicate delayed diarrhea model. Equal volume of normal saline was injected to rats in the normal control group from the caudal vein. SXD at 2 g/mL (10 g/kg body weight) was administered to rats in the SXD combined CPT-11 group by gastrogavage for 9 successive days. Deionized water was administered to rats in the CPT-11 group and the normal control group. Diarrhea was observed at 48, 60, 72, 84, 96, and 108 h to calculate the incidence rate of diarrhea. Meanwhile, scoring for diarrhea was performed by referring methods of Akinobu Kurita. Rats were killed on day 10, ileum, cecum, and colon tissues were collected and fixed in 10% formalin solution. HE staining was performed. Intestinal mucosa injuries were graded under light microscope according to the criterion of Chiu's score. The expressions of goblet cells and Paneth cells were observed by PAS stain. Enteroendocrine cells were observed by immunohistochemical CgA staining. Positive cells were counted and cumulative optical density (IOD) analyzed by Image-Pro-Plus 6.0.

RESULTSNo diarrhea occurred in rats of the normal control group at each time point. The incidence rate of diarrhea was 75.0% (6/8) at 48 h, 100.0% (8/8) at 60 h, 100.0% (8/8) at 72 h, 87.5% (7/8) at 84 h, 75.0% (6/8) at 96 h, and 75.0% (6/8) at 108 h in the CPT-11 group. The incidence rate of diarrhea was 25.0% (2/8) at 48 h, 50.0% (4/8) at 60 h, 12.5% (1/8) at 72 h, 0.0% (0/8) at 84 h in the SXD combined CPT-11 group. Compared with the same group at 60 h, scores for diarrhea at 48, 84, 96, and 108 h obviously decreased in the CPT-11 group, and scores for diarrhea at 48, 72, 84, 96, and 108 h obviously decreased in the SXD combined CPT-11 group (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). Compared with the same group at 72 h, scores for diarrhea at 84, 96, and 108 h obviously decreased in the CPT-11 group (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). Compared with the normal control group, scores for diarrhea increased in the CPT-11 group at each time point (P < 0.01); grading of ileum, cecum, and colon mucosal tissues increased (P < 0.05, P < 0.01); expressions of ileum and cecum mucosal epithelial goblet cells obviously decreased (P < 0.05); the number and expressions of ileum and cecum mucosal epithelial Paneth cells increased (P < 0.01). Expressions of ilium endocrine cells increased, while those of cecum and colon endocrine cells decreased in the CPT-11 group (P < 0.01). Compared with the CPT-11 group, scores for diarrhea were obviously lowered (P < 0.05, P < 0.01), grading of ileum, and cecum mucosal tissues decreased (P < 0.05, P < 0.01); expressions of ileum, cecum, and colon mucosal epithelial goblet cells obviously increased (P < 0.05, P < 0.01); the number and expressions of ileum cecum mucosal epithelial Paneth cells increased (P < 0.05); expressions of cecum and colon endocrine cells increased (P < 0.05, P < 0.01) in the SXD combined CPT-11 group.

CONCLUSIONSXD played roles in preventing and treating CPT-11 induced delayed diarrhea by improving CPT-11 chemotherapy induced apoptosis and necrosis of intestinal mucosal and functional cells.

Animals ; Apoptosis ; Camptothecin ; adverse effects ; analogs & derivatives ; Colon ; Diarrhea ; Drug Therapy ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Ileum ; Intestinal Mucosa ; drug effects ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Wound Healing ; drug effects

OBJECTIVETo investigate the anticancer effect and its mechanism of SN-38 combined with sorafenib on hepatocellular cancer cell lines HepG-2 and BEL-7402.

METHODSSRB colorimetry was employed to measure the viability of HepG-2 and BEL-7402 cells after the treatment of SN-38 with sorafenib. Propidium iodide flow cytometric assay and DAPI staining were used to evaluate the apoptosis of HCC cells. Western blotting was conducted to detect the expression level of apoptosis-related and DNA damage-related proteins.

RESULTSSRB colorimetry showed the synergistic anticancer activities of SN-38 combined with sorafenib, with a combination index of <0.9. The apoptotic rates of HepG-2 cells in control, 60 nmol/L SN-38, 2.5μmol/L sorafenib and combination groups were 4.25%±2.45%, 28.95%±10.75%, 3.49%±2.49% and 53.19%±11.21%, respectively(P<0.05). Western blotting showed that the combination of these two drugs increased the enzymolysis of PARP, Caspase-8 and Caspase-3, and promoted the expression levels of p53, p21 and γ-H2AX significantly.

CONCLUSIONSN-38 and sorafenib have synergistic anticancer activity on hepatocellular carcinoma cells in vitro with the augmentation of apoptosis.

Apoptosis ; Camptothecin ; analogs & derivatives ; pharmacology ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; pathology ; Caspase 3 ; metabolism ; Caspase 8 ; metabolism ; Cell Line, Tumor ; drug effects ; Cell Proliferation ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p21 ; metabolism ; Histones ; metabolism ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms ; pathology ; Niacinamide ; analogs & derivatives ; pharmacology ; Phenylurea Compounds ; pharmacology ; Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerases ; metabolism ; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo observe the clinical efficacy of cetuximab plus chemotherapy in the treatment of metastatic colorectal carcinoma.

METHODSClinicopathological data of 128 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer admitted in the Department of Oncology, Chinese PLA General Hospital from 2008 to June 2012 were analyzed retrospectively. Among them, 91 patients received cetuximab as the first-line therapy and 37 in the second-line or more-line therapy. The chemotherapy regimens included oxaliplatin-based therapy (FOLFOX/XELOX), irinotecan-based therapy (FOLFIRI/XELIRI) and fluorouracil-based therapy (Xeloda). The efficacy was evaluated according to RECIST 1.0 criteria. The remission rate, control rate and time to disease progression were compared among patients receiving cetuximab combined with different chemotherapy regimens in different periods.

RESULTSThe disease control rate of cetuximab applied in the first-line treatment was higher than that of the second-line or more-line [85.9% (61/71) vs. 59.3% (16/27), P=0.004]. The disease control rate of the group treated with cetuximab plus oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy was much higher compared to the other two groups [91.1% (41/45) vs. 68.1% (32/47), 4/6, P=0.021]. But there were no significant differences among three regimens in the terms of overall response rate (all P>0.05). The median time to progression of groups with cetuximab plus irinotecan, oxaliplatin or capecitabine was 7.8 months, 8.5 months and 5.2 months respectively. The median time to progression of cetuximab combined with chemotherapy in the first-line treatment and the second-line or more-line was 8.2 and 7.7 months respectively. However, the differences were not statistically significant (P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONSCetuximab in combination with oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy is recommended as the first-line application in the treatment of metastatic colorectal carcinoma patients, because it is helpful to improve the rate of disease control.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; Camptothecin ; analogs & derivatives ; Cetuximab ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; Deoxycytidine ; analogs & derivatives ; Fluorouracil ; analogs & derivatives ; Humans ; Leucovorin ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Organoplatinum Compounds ; Retrospective Studies ; Treatment Outcome