Aim: To investigate whether the benefit of combining aflibercept with 5-fluorouracil, folinic acid and irinotecan (FOLFIRI) chemotherapy could be confirmed in patients from the Asia-Pacific region (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01661270). Patients & methods: Asian patients with oxaliplatin-pretreated metastatic colorectal cancer were randomized to receive aflibercept or placebo, followed by FOLFIRI. The primary end point was progression-free survival.
Results: The intention-to-treat population comprised 332 patients. A clinical supply misallocation resulted in 198/332 (60%) patients receiving at least one cycle of misallocated treatment. Nevertheless, the addition of aflibercept to FOLFIRI was shown to improve progression-free survival (hazard ratio: 0.629; 95% CI: 0.488-0.812). Adverse events were in line with expectations.
Conclusion: The beneficial treatment effect associated with the addition of aflibercept to FOLFIRI was confirmed in Asian patients with pretreated metastatic colorectal cancer.
Keywords: Asia-Pacific; FOLFIRI; aflibercept; mCRC; oxaliplatin-pretreated.