Background: Cetuximab in Japan is currently approved as a second or more line therapy for advanced metastatic colorectal cancer.
Case: We report a case of liver metastasis of colon cancer effectively treated by cetuximab after the progression and prolonged neural toxicity of the prior chemotherapy including oxaliplatin and irinotecan. A 61-year-old female suffered from unresectable multiple liver metastases of sigmoid colon cancer. She had already received irinotecan+S-1, mFOLFOX6+bevacizumab, FOLFIRI+bevacizumab, and hepatic arterial infusion of 5-FU+systemic infusion of irinotecan. Although liver metastases were stably controlled by those therapies, her peripheral neural symptom, initially caused by oxaliplatin, became worse after infusion of irinotecan. We decided to give her cetuximab monotherapy in the fifth-line setting. We investigated K-ras gene status on her colon cancer tissue previously resected, which showed a wild-type. Her liver tumor showed a partial response evaluated with RECIST, and the status was maintained for more than four months.
Conclusion: Cetuximab monotherapy can be used for those with prolonged neurotoxicity and might be effective for the patients with second or more line setting.