Delta Tocotrienol as a Supplement to FOLFOXIRI in First Line Treatment of Metastatic Colorectal Cancer. A Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Phase II Study

Purpose Triplet chemotherapy might be more effective than doublet chemotherapy in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), but it may also be marked by increased toxicity. To investigate whether δ-tocotrienol, a vitamin E analogue, with its possible neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects reduces the toxicity of triplet chemotherapy, we conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled trial in mCRC patients receiving first line 5-fluorouracil, oxaliplatin and irinotecan (FOLFOXIRI).Methods We randomly assigned 70 mCRC patients to FOLFOXIRI plus δ-tocotrienol or FOLFOXIRI plus placebo. FOLFOXIRI was given in eight cycles followed by four cycles of 5-fluorouracil. δ-tocotrienol 300 mg or placebo x 3 daily was added during chemotherapy and for a maximum of two years. The primary endpoint was time to hospitalization or death during treatment with chemotherapy.Results Median time to first hospitalization or death was 3.7 months in the placebo group (95% CI 1.93-not reached (NR)), and NR in the δ-tocotrienol group (95% CI 1.87-NR) with a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.70 (95% CI 0.36-1.36, p=0.29)). In the placebo group 24 patients (71%) had oxaliplatin dose reductions compared to 17 patients (47%) in the δ-tocotrienol group (p=0.047).Conclusion The addition of δ-tocotrienol to FOLFOXIRI did not significantly prolong the time to first hospitalization or death compared to FOLFOXIRI plus placebo. Toxicity was manageable and not statistically different between the two groups. There was a statistically significant difference in dose reductions of oxaliplatin pointing to a possible neuroprotective effect of δ-tocotrienol.Clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT02705300. Date of registration March 10, 2016.

Modified FOLFIRINOX Versus CISGEM Chemotherapy for Patients With Advanced Biliary Tract Cancer (PRODIGE 38 AMEBICA): A Randomized Phase II Study

PURPOSE Whether triplet chemotherapy is superior to doublet chemotherapy in advanced biliary tract cancer (BTC) is unknown. METHODS In this open-label, randomized phase II-III study, patients with locally advanced or metastatic BTC and an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1 were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive oxaliplatin, irinotecan, and infusional fluorouracil (mFOLFIRINOX), or cisplatin and gemcitabine (CISGEM) for a maximum of 6 months. We report the results of the phase II part, where the primary end point was the 6-month progression-free survival (PFS) rate among the patients who received at least one dose of treatment (modified intention-to-treat population) according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1 (statistical assumptions: 6-month PFS rate ≥ 59%, 73% expected). RESULTS A total of 191 patients (modified intention-to-treat population, 185: mFOLFIRINOX, 92; CISGEM, 93) were randomly assigned in 43 French centers. After a median follow-up of 21 months, the 6-month PFS rate was 44.6% (90% CI, 35.7 to 53.7) in the mFOLFIRINOX arm and 47.3% (90% CI, 38.4 to 56.3) in the CISGEM arm. Median PFS was 6.2 months (95% CI, 5.5 to 7.8) in the mFOLFIRINOX arm and 7.4 months (95% CI, 5.6 to 8.7) in the CISGEM arm. Median overall survival was 11.7 months (95% CI, 9.5 to 14.2) in the mFOLFIRINOX arm and 13.8 months (95% CI, 10.9 to 16.1) in the CISGEM arm. Adverse events ≥ grade 3 occurred in 72.8% of patients in the mFOLFIRINOX arm and 72.0% of patients in the CISGEM arm (toxic deaths: mFOLFIRINOX arm, two; CISGEM arm, one). CONCLUSION mFOLFIRINOX triplet chemotherapy did not meet the primary study end point. CISGEM doublet chemotherapy remains the first-line standard in advanced BTC.

Variable implementation of optimal therapeutic strategies in metastatic colorectal cancer: Reviewing rates of liver resection and triplet chemotherapy across Australian hospitals as potential quality indicators.

248 Background: Quality indicators (QI) are essential to monitor the efficacy of cancer care and to guide quality improvement, however many are derived from ‘expert consensus’ and are not validated against outcomes. Moreover, the majority of oncological QI are defined in the surgical setting, with only a paucity of QI for the treatment of metastatic disease. We aimed to define and validate novel QI for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) based on therapeutic approaches associated with a proven survival benefit. Methods: Data was analysed from TRACC, a multisite Australian registry collecting prospective demographic, tumour, treatment and outcome data for mCRC. We identified all patients diagnosed across 11 hospitals and explored variation by site with regards to patient and tumour characteristics, first-line chemotherapy administration and resection of oligometastatic disease. Log-rank testing and Kaplan-Meier curves compare overall survival (OS) between sites, and Pearson correlation was used to assess associations with each QI. Results: We examined data from 3132 patients diagnosed with mCRC between July 2009 – April 2021. Median age was 66 years (range 62 – 71 years by site), ECOG 0-1 81% (range 69 – 96% by site), and Charlson Comorbidity Index ≤2 43% (33 – 59% by site). Multivariate analysis confirmed association of known adverse prognostic factors with inferior OS (poor ECOG, right sided primary, KRAS or BRAF mutation, all p <0.05). Median OS for entire cohort was 26.2 months (95%CI 24.9 – 27.3 months), and varied by hospital site from 20.1 – 36.1 months (p<0.001). Of the QI evaluated, rate of triplet chemotherapy (FOLFOXIRI) administration (2.8 – 13.2% by site) was very strongly correlated with OS (R2 = 0.851), rate of liver resection (9.8 – 23.2% by site) was moderately correlated (R2 = 0.523), and rates of active treatment with first-line chemotherapy (63 - 90% by site) were weakly correlated (R2 = 0.209). Other proposed QI such as rates of lung metastases resection or chemotherapy administration in the elderly showed significant variation by site, but did not correlate with survival. Conclusions: There is significant variation in OS for patients with mCRC in these Australian hospitals, with major differences in treatment approaches. Treatment strategies known to improve survival outcomes, such as triplet FOLFOXIRI chemotherapy and resection of liver metastases, may be potential QI to benchmark and track quality improvement over time. Further analysis will determine the impact of baseline patient populations between sites, and to correlate these QI with other quality measures.

Doublet (FOLFOX or FOLFIRI) versus triplet (FOLFOXIRI) backbone chemotherapy regimen as first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer: A meta-analysis and systematic review.

3593 Background: Doublet chemotherapy FOLFOX and FOLFIRI are standard for first‐line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Recently, use of triplet chemotherapy FOLFOXIRI has shown an increased anti-cancer activity but still there is uncertainty regarding first line backbone chemotherapy. Therefore, we conducted this metanalysis to determine the efficacy, safety and outcome of triplet vs doublet chemotherapy. Methods: The study protocol was published at PROSPERO (CRD42020166745) and prepared as per PRISMA guidelines. Total 10 studies were included, with sample size of 1536 participants in triplet arm and 1535 participants in doublet arm. The primary outcome is Response rate (RR) and secondary outcomes are Progression-free survival (PFS), Overall survival (OS), post chemotherapy radical (R0) surgical resection rate of metastases. Quantitative synthesis was performed using “R” statistical package. Dichotomous outcomes were summarized using odds ratio (OR) and time to event data was summarized using hazard ratio (HR). Results: A total of 678 articles were retrieved. The Medline article search gave a result of 271 article, Embase 296, the Cochrane Library 100 and Clinical tral.gov 11, when searched through April 2020. Total 10 studies were included. All the studies were randomized, open-label, multicenter study. Out of the 10 trials 5 each were phase II and phase III studies. The pooled odds ratio for RR was 1.66 (95% CI 1.42 to 1.93) and PFS was (HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.63–0.78) in favor of triplet chemotherapy. There was significant improvement in radical resection (R0) of metastases (OR 1.59; 95% CI, 1.27–1.98) in triplet arm. Triplet arm was also associated with increased toxicity especially neurological events 2.51(0.88-7.16), diarrhea 2.40(1.74-3.31), neutropenia, 2.23(1.71-2.90) and thrombocytopenia 1.94(1.05-3.59). Conclusions: Findings in this meta-analysis showed that FOLFOXIRI significantly improves the PFS, RR, OS, and R0 resection rate of overall metastases over the doublet chemotherapy. The incidence of fatal adverse events was found to be more in triplet chemotherapy compared to doublet therapy. Therefore, we concluded that with moderate evidence FOLFOXIRI provide clinically meaningful efficacy benefit at cost of increased toxicity.[Table: see text]