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Gastrointestinal cancer

Rationale for metronomic chemotherapy in phase III trials

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 12, pages 313–314 (2015)Cite this article

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Investigational metronomic chemotherapy involves frequent, regularly spaced, long-term administration of a sub-maximum tolerated dose. The phase III CAIRO3 trial evaluated continuous metronomic oral capecitabine, with bevacizumab, as a maintenance treatment in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer; a benefit in progression-free survival compared with observation only was observed, highlighting that metronomic chemotherapy could be a less toxic and convenient therapy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biological Sciences Platform, Sunnybrook Research Institute, 2075 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, M4N 3M5, ON, Canada

    Robert S. Kerbel

  2. Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, 55905, MN, USA

    Axel Grothey

Authors
  1. Robert S. Kerbel
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  2. Axel Grothey
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Correspondence to Robert S. Kerbel.

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Competing interests

R.S.K. receives consulting fees/honoraria from Angiocrine Biosciences, Boehringer–Ingelheim, Cerulean Pharma, Eli-Lilly, Merrimack, MolMed, and Triphase Accelerator. R.S.K. also has stock options from Angiocrine Biosciences. The Mayo Clinic Foundation received research funding and honoraria for consulting activities by A.G. from Bayer, Eisai, Eli-Lilly, Genentech, and Pfizer.

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Kerbel, R., Grothey, A. Rationale for metronomic chemotherapy in phase III trials. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 12, 313–314 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2015.89

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