Metastatic Esophageal Cancer: A Safe, Well-Tolerated, And Effective Treatment

Main Category: GastroIntestinal / Gastroenterology
Also Included In: Ear, Nose and Throat;  Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 24 Feb 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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Metastatic esophageal squamous cell cancer has very poor prognosis. Conventional surgery is considered the most effective treatment, but many cases are inoperable at the time of diagnosis.

More recently, chemotherapy has shown activity in metastatic ESCC. However, there is no generally accepted standard chemotherapy for advanced cancer. In addition, more and more people pay close attention to the research of optimizing chemotherapy regimen.

Oxaliplatin is one kind of chemotherapeutic drug belonging to the third generation of platinum, which has played an important role in the treatment of colon and rectum cancer and other solid tumors. It has the synergistic effect with 5-FU with the slighter digestive tract reaction and hematotoxicity. Capecitabine which has the slighter side effect is the prosoma of 5-FU and can be taken orally and rapidly absorbed as an intact molecule in the gastrointestinal tract.

A research article published on February 21, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this problem. The research team led by Dr. Qin, Professor Gu and Professor Zhao from Department of Medical Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Medical School of Xi'an Jiaotong University, evaluated the efficacy toxic reaction and survival period of Oxaliplatin combined with capecitabine in treatment of patients with metastatic esophageal squamous cell cancer.

In their study, patients with metastatic metastatic ESCC were treated with oxaliplatin 120 mg/m2 intravenously on day 1 and capecitabine 1000 mg/m2 orally twice daily on days 1 to 14 in a 21-day treatment cycle as palliative chemotherapy. Each patient received at least two cycles. The efficacy, side effects and survival were evaluated then. Treatment was continued until unacceptable toxicity or disease progression.

Out of the 64 patients whose response could be evaluated, the partial response was 43.8%, Stable disease (SD) rate was 47.9% (26/ 64), and disease progression (PD) rate was 15.6% (10/ 64). The clinical benefit rate (PR + SD) was 84.4%. The median overall survival was 10.0 months (95% CI 8.3-11.7 months,respectively. It showed an improvement for quality of life after the chemotherapy.

"Capecitabine was given orally twice daily on days 1 to 14 in a 21-day treatment cycle" Said Dr. Zhao. "It showed that this treatment can be given on outpatient basis, therefore the economic burden of the patients can be reduced."

The investigators believed that the oxaliplatin combined with capecitabine treatment provides a safe, well-tolerated, and effective treatment for patients with metastatic ESCC.

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Reference: Qin TJ, An GL, Zhao XH, Tian F, Li XH, Lian JW, Pan BR, Gu SZ. Combined treatment of oxaliplatin and capecitabine in patients with metastatic esophageal squamous cell cancer. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15(7): 871-876

http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/15/871.asp

Correspondence to: Dr. Shan-Zhi Gu, Key Laboratory of Environment and Genes Related to Diseases, Ministry of Education; School of Medicine of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710061, Shaanxi Province,China.

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2003-2000 IF: 3.318, 2.532, 1.445 and 0.993. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.

About The WJG Press

The WJG Press mainly publishes World Journal of Gastroenterology.

Source: Lin Tian
World Journal of Gastroenterology

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