Multicenter study of liposomal irinotecan and capecitabine plus bevacizumab as second-line therapy in metastatic colorectal cancer

A multicenter study in China evaluated the combination of liposomal irinotecan, capecitabine, and bevacizumab as second-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) after progression on first-line oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). A total of 63 patients were enrolled, with a median age of 60.0 years (range 37.0-79.0). Among 48 patients who received at least one tumor assessment, the objective response rate was 22.9% (95% CI 12.0-37.3) and the disease control rate was 89.6% (77.3-96.5). With a median follow-up of 16.2 months (range 0.5-28.5), the median PFS was 8.1 months (95% CI 7.3-8.9) and the median overall survival was 19.5 months (15.2-23.8). The most common grade 3 or 4 adverse events were diarrhea (12.7%), neutropenia (11.1%), and fatigue (6.3%). The authors conclude that these results suggest that the combination of liposomal irinotecan, capecitabine, and bevacizumab is a clinically feasible second-line treatment option for mCRC after failure of fist-line oxaliplatin-based therapy (graphical abstract).