Researchers from France have reported that the combination of Eloxatin (oxaliplatin) and Xeloda (Xelox®, capecitabine) is effective for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The details of this study appeared in the October 1, 2007 issue of the British Journal of Cancer.[1]  

Patients with advanced HCC have few effective treatment options. Doxorubicin has been the main chemotherapy agent for treatment of patients with advanced HCC. A multicenter international trial has shown that the combination of Nexavar® (sorafenib) and doxorubicin is more effective than doxorubicin alone for the treatment of advanced HCC.

The current study evaluated a regimen of Eloxatin and Xeloda for treating 50 patients with advanced HCC. Three patients had partial remissions and 29 had stable disease for a disease control rate of 72%. Median survival was 9.3 months and progression-free survival was 4.1 months. Progression-free survival rate at one year was 14%. These authors suggest that this regimen has modest antitumor effect with manageable toxicity.  

Reference: Bolge V, Raoul J-L, Pignon J-P, et al. Multicentre Phase II trial of capecitabine plus oxaliplatin (Xelox) in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: FFCD 03-03 trial. British Journal of Cancer. 2007; 97:862-867. 

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