Oncologic outcomes after adjuvant chemotherapy using FOLFOX in MSI-H sporadic stage III colon cancer.

BACKGROUND

Little is known of the oncological outcomes after adjuvant FOLFOX chemotherapy in patients with stage III colon cancer showing microsatellite instability high (MSI-H). In the present study we investigated the prognostic impact of MSI-H in patients with stage III colon cancer receiving FOLFOX chemotherapy.

METHODS

We analyzed the MSI status in 127 patients with stage III colon cancer who underwent curative surgical resection followed by FOLFOX chemotherapy between January 2003 and December 2010. We assessed disease-free and overall survival (OS) in patients with MSI-H colon cancer compared with those showing microsatellite instability low or microsatellite stable (MSI-L/MSS) disease.

RESULTS

Sixteen of the patients (12.6 %) were MSI-H, and 111 patients (87.4 %) were MSI-L/MSS. There was no significant difference between patients showing MSI-H and MSI-L/MSS except for age (P = 0.030), tumor location (P < 0.001), and differentiation (P = 0.031). Compared with MSI-L/MSS colon cancer, patients with MSI-H colon cancer had no significant difference in 5-year disease-free and OS (72.2 vs 68.5 %, P = 0.874; 68.1 vs 71.1 %, P = 0.437).

CONCLUSIONS

Our study indicates that FOLFOX chemotherapy can be considered to treat stage III colon cancer patients with MSI-H after surgery, although the study was not randomized and included only a limited number of patients.