Two Cases of Long-Term Control of Metastatic Colorectal Cancer via FTD/TPI plus Bevacizumab in Elderly Patients

With advances in new cytotoxic drugs and molecular-targeted drugs, the prognosis of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) has improved. However, physicians often hesitate to administer intensive standard regimens to elderly patients with mCRC. Recently, first-line regimens that are effective in and well-tolerated by patients who are not eligible for intensive chemotherapy have been established. However, the therapeutic strategies to adopt after the failure of first-line treatment for patients who are not eligible for intensive chemotherapy remain unclear. We herein report two cases of long-term control of mCRC via FTD/TPI+bevacizumab (Bmab) as second- or third-line treatment in elderly patients without severe adverse events. In case 1, first-line treatment with Tegafur-Uracil, which is a prodrug of 5-FU, caused disease progression in a short period after the initiation of chemotherapy. In case 2, intensive first-line treatment caused severe adverse events, and treatment was discontinued. However, in both cases, disease control was obtained for a long time without severe adverse events by subsequent treatment with FTD/TPI+Bmab. The success in these present cases indicates that FTD/TPI+Bmab as a second- or third-line treatment is a therapeutic option for elderly patients with mCRC who are not eligible for intensive chemotherapy, even after failure of treatment with 5-FU.