Clinical outcome of patients with chemorefractory metastatic colorectal cancer treated with trifluridine/tipiracil (TAS-102): a single Italian institution compassionate use programme

Background: TAS-102 improves overall survival (OS) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) refractory to standard treatments. However, predictive biomarkers of efficacy are currently lacking.

Patients and methods: We treated a cohort of 43 chemorefractory mCRC patients treated with TAS-102, in a single institution expanded access, compassionate use programme. We stratified patients in two groups according to number of cycles received (<6 cycles and ≥6 cycles). OS, progression-free survival (PFS) and safety were evaluated.

Results: Thirteen out of 43 patients (30%) obtained a clinically relevant disease control with TAS-102 therapy. Eleven of them were treated for ≥6 cycles with TAS-102, reaching a median PFS of 7.5 months (95% CI 5.8 to 9.2 months) and a median OS of 11.2 months (95% CI range not reached yet). A trend towards significance (p=0.08) between a good performance status and response to TAS-102 was observed. Further, 7 out of the 11 TAS-102 long-treated patients achieved a clinical benefit from a previous treatment with regorafenib. A significant correlation between regorafenib and TAS-102 clinical efficacy was observed (p=0.008). Six out 13 regorafenib-naïve patients were treated with regorafenib after progression from TAS-102. All these patients achieved SD with a median duration of treatment with regorafenib of 6.1 months (range, 1.6-6.7).

Conclusion: Patients with mCRC in good clinical conditions, even though having been heavily pretreated with all the available treatment options, could obtain a significant clinical benefit from treatment with TAS-102. Moreover, a previous clinical benefit obtained with regorafenib is potentially predictive of clinical efficacy of subsequent TAS-102 treatment.