Highlights
- •The outcome of oxaliplatin as an adjuvant therapy in elderly patients with colon cancer is doubt.
- •Worse prognostic factors and reduced compliance have a negative impact on its effectiveness.
- •Fluoropyrimidine monotherapy is an appropriate choice for most elderly patients.
- •Only fit elderly patients should receive oxaliplatin as an adjuvant therapy.
Abstract
Background
Previous studies on oxaliplatin and fluoropyrimidines as adjuvant therapy in older
patients with stage III colon cancer (CC) produced conflicting results.
Patients and methods
We assessed the impact of age on time to tumour recurrence (TTR), disease-free survival
(DFS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and overall survival (OS) in 2360 patients
with stage III CC (1667 aged <70 years and 693 ≥ 70 years) randomised to receive 3
or 6 months of FOLFOX or CAPOX within the frame of the phase III, TOSCA study.
Results
Older patients compared with younger ones presented more frequently an Eastern Cooperative
Oncology Group performance status equal to 1 (10.5% vs 3.3%, p < 0.001), a greater number of right-sided tumours (40.9% vs 26.6%, p < 0.001), and were at higher clinical risk (37.2% vs 33.2%, p = 0.062). The treatments were almost identical in the two cohorts (p = 0.965).
We found a greater proportion of dose reductions (46.7% vs 41.4%, p = 0.018), treatment interruptions (26.1% vs 19.3%, p < 0.001) and a higher proportion of recurrences (24.2% vs 20.3%, p = 0.033) in the older patients. The multivariable analysis of the TTR did
not indicate a statistically significant effect of age (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.19; 95%
confidence interval [CI]: 0.98–1.44; p = 0.082). The HR comparing older with younger
patients was 1.34 (95% CI: 1.12–1.59; p = 0.001) for DFS, 1.58 (95% CI: 1.26–1.99;
p < 0.001) for OS, and 1.28 (95% CI: 0.96–1.70; p = 0.089) for CSS.
Conclusions
Worse prognostic factors and reduced treatment compliance have a negative impact on
the efficacy of oxaliplatin-based adjuvant therapy in older patients.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 18, 2021
Accepted:
January 30,
2021
Received in revised form:
January 19,
2021
Received:
November 7,
2020
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
