RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of irinotecan in treating patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.
OBJECTIVES: I. Evaluate the clinical usefulness of preoperative irinotecan in patients with high risk, technically resectable metastatic colorectal cancer that is refractory to fluorouracil. II. Evaluate prospectively the relationship between expression of selected molecular determinants of response and clinical responsiveness to irinotecan in these patients. III. Determine the effect of treatment with irinotecan on the expression of putative response determinants in these patients. OUTLINE: This is an open label study. Patients receive irinotecan IV over 90 minutes weekly for 4 consecutive weeks. Course repeats every 6 weeks. After 2 courses, CT scan is obtained and patients showing evidence of disease that is still amenable to surgical resection undergo surgery. Approximately 4-8 weeks after surgical resection, patients receive 3 additional courses of irinotecan in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients are followed every 3 months for 2 years and then every 6 months for years 3 and 4. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 30 patients will be accrued into this study.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Purpose
TREATMENT
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
New York, New York, United States
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