Gemcitabine and capecitabine as third- or later-line therapy for refractory advanced colorectal cancer: a...

To evaluate gemcitabine plus capecitabine as third-line or later-line therapy in patients with refractory advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) who maintain a good performance status (PS).

We retrospectively evaluated patients who had failed at least two lines of therapy or had contraindication to standard therapy and received gemcitabine (1,000 mg/m(2), d1 biweekly) plus capecitabine (1,700 mg/m(2)/day, d1-7 every two weeks) in a compassionate use program.

Thirty-nine patients were enrolled. The majority (85%) had ECOG PS 1. Gemcitabine plus capecitabine was administered as third- and fourth-line in 49% and 23% of patients, respectively; and as fifth-line or later-line in 28%. A clinical benefit of 21% was found. The median progression-free survival and overall survival were 3.0 and 7.3 months, respectively. Toxicity was mild to moderate, with no reported grade 4 toxicities.

Gemcitabine plus capecitabine was safe and well-tolerated. While the efficacy of this regimen was modest in terms of response, the survival data were acceptable and consistent with previous publications on this setting.