Early start of chemotherapy after resection of brain metastasis from colon cancer with synchronous multiple liver metastases

Abstract

Brain metastasis (BM) is infrequent in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Although BM from CRC is a late-stage phenomenon with an extremely poor prognosis, some subsets of patients would benefit from a multidisciplinary management strategy. The prognosis of patients with BM from CRC is associated with the curability of the therapy for BM and number of metastatic organs. The start of chemotherapy treatment usually requires a delay of about 4 weeks after surgical resection in patients with primary CRC having synchronous distant metastasis. However, there is no evidence to indicate the required length of this delay interval. In addition, there is a chance that a patient may die because postoperative chemotherapy was not started soon enough and a metastatic tumor was able to develop rapidly. Here, we present a case where combination chemotherapy with capecitabine and oxaliplatin (XELOX) was started within 1 week after resection of BM from colon cancer for synchronous multiple liver metastases. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the start of chemotherapy, involving treatments such as folinic acid, fluorouracil, and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX); folinic acid, fluorouracil, and irinotecan (FOLFIRI); and XELOX within 1 week after resection of BM from colon cancer with synchronous multiple liver metastases. These findings suggest possible changes in the start time of chemotherapy after surgery in the future. Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel.