Safety, tolerability, and efficacy of oxaliplatin-based adjuvant chemotherapy after curative resection of hepatic or extrahepatic metastases of Stage IV colorectal cancer

Surgery is the only potentially curative strategy for patients who have Stage IV colorectal cancer (CRC) with resectable metastases, but relapse is common. Randomized trials of adjuvant 5-FU-based systemic chemotherapy have not demonstrated any benefit after resection of liver metastases. We evaluated the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of oxaliplatin-based adjuvant chemotherapy after curative resection of hepatic or extrahepatic metastases of CRC. We retrospectively studied data for 88 consecutive patients with Stage IV CRC who underwent curative resection of metastases followed by oxaliplatin-based adjuvant chemotherapy between March 2007 and June 2013. The 3-year relapse-free survival (RFS) rate was 54.0 %. There was no significant difference in 3-year RFS between patients with metastases confined to the liver (52.7 %) and patients with extrahepatic metastases (57.2 %). Multivariate analysis revealed that the site of the primary tumor (right-sided colon or left-sided colon/rectum) and the number of metastases (solitary or multiple) were predictors of RFS. Scheduled courses were completed in 80.7 % of the patients. Except for neutropenia (47.7 %), severe adverse events were observed in