Prognostic impact of early treatment and oxaliplatin discontinuation in patients with stage III colon cancer

Oxaliplatin-based adjuvant chemotherapy is standard in high-risk stage III colon cancer patients. Pooled analysis of 11 adjuvant studies investigated the prognostic impact of early discontinuation of all treatment (before the patient received 75% of planned cycles) and of early discontinuation of oxaliplatin only. The analysis showed that cancer found that early discontinuation of all treatment was associated with poorer oncologic outcomes. However, this was not the case for early discontination of oxaliplatin only. The authors conclude that these data favor discontinuing oxaliplatin while continuing fluoropyrimidine in patients with significant neurotoxicity having received ≥ 50% of the planned 6-month chemotherapy.