Preoperative Radiotherapy With Capecitabine and Bevacizumab in Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer: CRAB Phase II Study

Summary

The use of preoperative chemoradiation and adjuvant chemotherapy with 5-FU based chemotherapy reduced local recurrence rate to less than 10%, but has only had limited effect on overall survival due to the constantly high (more than 30%) rate of distant metastasis. However, it has been shown that complete eradication of the primary tumour observed in the histopathological specimen (pathological complete response, pCR) correlates with a favourable overall prognosis so obtaining a pCR might be beneficial. The aim of the study is to investigate whether the addition of bevacizumab to preoperative fluoropyrimidinebased chemoradiation improves pathological complete remission rate in locally advanced rectal cancer with acceptable toxicity. Secondary objectives are to evaluate pathological downstaging rate, histopathological R0 resection rate,sphincter preservation rate, perioperative surgical complication rate, local control, DFS, OS, late toxicity and quality of life.

Timeline

Start

2009-01

Primary completion

2010-08

Completion

2014-08

Publications

• Background Camma C, Giunta M, Fiorica F, Pagliaro L, Craxi A, Cottone M. Preoperative radiotherapy for resectable rectal cancer: A meta-analysis. JAMA. 2000 Aug 23-30;284(8):1008-15. doi: 10.1001/jama.284.8.1008.
• Background Sauer R, Becker H, Hohenberger W, Rodel C, Wittekind C, Fietkau R, Martus P, Tschmelitsch J, Hager E, Hess CF, Karstens JH, Liersch T, Schmidberger H, Raab R; German Rectal Cancer Study Group. Preoperative versus postoperative chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer. N Engl J Med. 2004 Oct 21;351(17):1731-40. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa040694.
• Background Dunst J, Reese T, Sutter T, Zuhlke H, Hinke A, Kolling-Schlebusch K, Frings S. Phase I trial evaluating the concurrent combination of radiotherapy and capecitabine in rectal cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2002 Oct 1;20(19):3983-91. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2002.02.049.
• Background Velenik V, Anderluh F, Oblak I, Strojan P, Zakotnik B. Capecitabine as a radiosensitizing agent in neoadjuvant treatment of locally advanced resectable rectal cancer: prospective phase II trial. Croat Med J. 2006 Oct;47(5):693-700.
• Background Duda DG, Jain RK, Willett CG. Antiangiogenics: the potential role of integrating this novel treatment modality with chemoradiation for solid cancers. J Clin Oncol. 2007 Sep 10;25(26):4033-42. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2007.11.3985.
• Background Willett CG, Boucher Y, Duda DG, di Tomaso E, Munn LL, Tong RT, Kozin SV, Petit L, Jain RK, Chung DC, Sahani DV, Kalva SP, Cohen KS, Scadden DT, Fischman AJ, Clark JW, Ryan DP, Zhu AX, Blaszkowsky LS, Shellito PC, Mino-Kenudson M, Lauwers GY. Surrogate markers for antiangiogenic therapy and dose-limiting toxicities for bevacizumab with radiation and chemotherapy: continued experience of a phase I trial in rectal cancer patients. J Clin Oncol. 2005 Nov 1;23(31):8136-9. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2005.02.5635. No abstract available.
• Background Czito BG, Bendell JC, Willett CG, Morse MA, Blobe GC, Tyler DS, Thomas J, Ludwig KA, Mantyh CR, Ashton J, Yu D, Hurwitz HI. Bevacizumab, oxaliplatin, and capecitabine with radiation therapy in rectal cancer: Phase I trial results. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2007 Jun 1;68(2):472-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2007.02.001.

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.