Drug Route Doesn’t Affect Colon Cancer Survival

Chemotherapy drugs are often given after surgery for colon cancer. New research now indicates that the route these drugs take in entering the body doesn’t affect survival.

Chemotherapy can be injected into veins to deliver the drugs throughout the body, known as systemic delivery, or into veins that largely limit delivery to the liver, called intraportal delivery. Doctors have been unable to reach a consensus regarding which method is best. The current findings are based on a study of 1,084 patients who underwent surgery for colon cancer and were randomly selected to receive chemotherapy delivered systemically, intraportally, or by both routes. The results are published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. During a follow-up period of more than 8 years, 389 adverse events, including recurrences, new cancers, or deaths, were observed, Dr. Roldano Fossati, from Istituto Mario Negri in Milan, Italy, and colleagues note. A total of 361 patients died. Despite the different drug routes, the survival rates for the three groups were similar–about 74 percent, the authors note. Moreover, the body regions where cancers returned were comparable in the groups. “To our knowledge, this is the largest study of patients with colon cancer that has compared the efficacy” of this form of chemotherapy delivered by these methods, the investigators state. The main finding is that combining the intraportal and systemic drug delivery methods did not provide an increase benefit to patients, and that the results were similar to those seen when the individual routes were used separately. (Source: Journal of the National Cancer Institute: Reuters Health News: May 2004.)