Aims: This study assessed radiotherapy combined with capecitabine and oxaliplatin in patients with primary, inextirpable colorectal adenocarcinoma.
Patients and methods: Forty-nine patients entered the trial. Two cycles of XELOX (capecitabine 1000 mg/m(2) bid d1-14+oxaliplatin 130 mg/m(2) d1, q3w) were followed by radiotherapy (50.4 Gy), combined with capecitabine 825 mg/m(2) bid every radiotherapy day and oxaliplatin 60 mg/m(2) once weekly. The primary end-point was objective response.
Results: Forty-seven patients were evaluable. Twenty-nine (62% [95% CI: 46-75%]) achieved complete or partial response. Thirty-eight (81%) went through surgery of whom 37 (97%) had an R0 resection and five (13%) had a pathological complete response. Seventy-eight percent were alive and estimated local progression rate was 11% at 2 years. The most common grade 3+ toxicity during chemoradiotherapy was diarrhoea (24%).
Conclusions: XELOX-RT was feasible and showed promising efficacy when treating patients with primary inextirpable colorectal cancer, establishing high local control rate.