New research shows that in patients with liver or liver-dominant metastatic colorectal cancer , the addition of selective internal radiation therapy to standard first-line mFOLFOX6 chemotherapy results in a significant increase in the survival of patients with primary tumors on the right.
SIRT, which has been used in Europe since 2003, is an internal radiotherapy using Y-90 resin microspheres (diameters between 20 and 60 microns) delivered in the hepatic artery using a catheter . Beta radiation emitting microspheres are preferentially placed in the microvessels around the tumor, minimizing systemic effects.
The SIRFLOX, FOXFIRE and FOXFIRE global studies aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of SIRT plus first-line oxaliplatin chemotherapy for unresectable mCRC.
For 554 patients who received chemotherapy plus SIRT and 549 patients who received chemotherapy only, the results showed that the median survival time of the left tumor of mCRC patients in the chemotherapy plus SIRT group was 24.6 months, compared with 26.6 months in the chemotherapy alone group, but SIRT chemotherapy The median survival of mCRC patients with unilateral tumors was 22 months in the group and 17.1 months in the chemotherapy alone group, which was 5 months longer.
At a news conference, Dr. Harpreet Wasan told Imperial College Health Care NHS Trust in the UK that a hypothesis is that the right side cancer not only […] worsens but is more resistant to chemotherapy. They may be more sensitive to radiation therapy, which has a completely different mechanism of action.
Dr. Wasan added that the lack of positive findings in the overall analysis may be due to the inclusion of patients with metastatic cancer outside the liver. He said: “Although SIRT can control liver diseases, it cannot control diseases outside the liver.”
