The MAX Study: Mitomycin C, Avastin and Xeloda in Patients With Untreated Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2007-07-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Although it is possible to cure bowel cancer when it is detected at an early stage, in many
cases it may spread to involve other organs and in these cases is generally incurable.
Chemotherapy prolongs survival and improves quality of life in such patients, but standard
chemotherapy for this disease has not been defined.
There are several possible chemotherapy treatments for patients with bowel cancer, which has
spread to other organs. However, these treatments are only partly effective and only work for
a limited period of time. Most treatments are associated with a number of possible side
effects which may have a detrimental effect on quality of life. Thus, it is imperative that
more effective treatments with the lowest possible risk of side effects are developed.
Previous studies have shown that the addition of a new type of antibody treatment
(bevacizumab) to an intensive combination chemotherapy regimen improved survival in patients
with advanced bowel cancer and extended the time before tumours began to grow. However,
intensive chemotherapy is likely to only be a suitable treatment for a proportion of patients
with bowel cancer, because intensive chemotherapy causes a high rate of side effects.
This study compares a gentle chemotherapy treatment (capecitabine chemotherapy tablets given
by mouth) with the combination of capecitabine and bevacizumab and the combination of
capecitabine, bevacizumab and intravenous mitomycin C.
It is expected that a gentle chemotherapy treatment or a gentle chemotherapy treatment
combined with bevacizumab would be an appropriate treatment for both young and fit patients
as well as older and less fit patients who would not easily tolerate intensive chemotherapy.