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Given results of the IDEA study presented at ASCO, would you consider truncating adjuvant therapy with stage II colon cancer?

For those that do receive adjuvant therapy with stage II disease, we know magnitude of benefit to be lower. If the decision is made to administer chemotherapy, is 3 months reasonable? If 3 months is acceptable in low-risk stage III disease, should 3 months be sufficient with stage II disease?
1 Answer
Mednet MemberInvited Expert
Medical Oncology · Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Answered on

The question asked is how one would consider incorporating the recent findings from the IDEA study into the utilization of adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with stage II colon cancer. The findings from this landmark study indicated that under certain circumstances, specifically those of patients with lower risk stage III colon cancer (T1-3 and N1) that adjuvant FOLFOX and XELOX chemotherapy could be reasonably shortened to 3 months from 6 months of therapy, thereby reducing the high prevalence of peripheral neuropathy and other adverse effects. At best, this seemed to risk a 1% increased risk of recurrence at the cost of these adverse effects. For higher risk patients, either T4 or N2, 6 months of chemotherapy should continue to be the no...

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