'Surprising' finding in trial of resection for advanced colorectal cancer
Surgery prior to chemotherapy might not improve survival, a study suggests
Contrary to previous reports, primary tumour resection prior to chemotherapy does not appear to confer a survival benefit in people with stage IV colorectal cancer (CRC), according to results from a randomised controlled trial.
In the Japanese phase 3 trial, 165 patients from 38 centres were randomly assigned to chemotherapy alone or primary tumour resection plus chemotherapy (with either mFOLFOX6 - flurouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin plus bevacizumab - or CapeOX -capecitabine, oxaliplatin and bevacizumab).
The median age was 65 and about 55% were