Cutting the duration of oxaliplatin-based therapy to three months for patients with advanced colon cancer reduces the risk of peripheral sensory neuropathy without reducing efficacy, a clinical trial shows.

Adjuvant capecitabine plus oxaliplatin (CAPOX) or modified fluorouracil, leucovorin and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) chemotherapy — the standard of care for patients with stage-III colon cancer following surgery — can trigger peripheral sensory neuropathy, leading to treatment modification or discontinuation.

Japanese researchers compared the efficacy and neuropathy rates with three versus six months of FOLFOX or CAPOX adjuvant chemotherapy in an open-label, randomised noninferiority trial in nearly 1300 Asian people with stage-III colon cancer.

The choice of adjuvant chemotherapy regimen was at the treating doctor’s discretion. About two thirds of patients were on CAPOX.