Cancer Treatment Today

Gemcitabine and capecitabine combination has enjoyed some success in pancreatic cancer but it does not appear to be very active for colorectal cancer.  An exploratory study by Fernandez et al in 21 patients found that the regimen was well tolerated and had “some” activity. Iqbal et al in 2009 confirmed that the regimen was well tolerated but did not find much activity. The study did not meet the primary endpoint, but there appears to be a subset of pts with stable disease who may benefit from therapy. There is an ongoing study in the Vieje Hospital in Denmark: A Phase II Study of Gemcitabine and Capecitabine for Treatment Resistant, Metastatic Colorectal Cancer (GemCaP), NCT01472770
This study is ongoing, but not recruiting participants.

Y. Fernández, J. M. Vieitez, J. Fra, I. Palacio, B. Mareque, E. Uña, J. M. Buesa, A. J. Lacave; Hospital Central de Asturias, Oviedo, Spain Capecitabine plus gemcitabine in heavily pre-treated colorectal cancer. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2004 ASCO Annual Meeting Proceedings (Post-Meeting Edition). Vol 22, No 14S (July 15 Supplement), 2004: 3679

S. Iqbal, D. Yang, S. Cole, A. B. El-Khoueiry, W. Boswell, R. Agafitei, R. Lujan, H. J. Lenz; University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Phase II study of capecitabine and gemcitabine in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).  J Clin Oncol 27, 2009 (suppl; abstr e15077)

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