ECCO 2017 | Overview of RAPIDO trial in rectal cancer and FOxTROT trial in colon cancer

David Sebag-Montefiore, MBBS, MRC, FRCR, FRCP from the University of Leeds, Leeds, UK discusses the RAPIDO trial in rectal cancer and the FOxTROT trial in colon cancer (NCT01558921 and NCT00647530 respectively). Prof. Sebag-Montefiore explains that the trials are investigating the role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. He outlines the design and results of both trials. In the FOxTROT trial, the current results suggest that neoadjuvant therapy is safe. In the RAPIDO trial, there was an increase in the serious adverse events seen in the experimental arm, which was, however, at an acceptable rate for clinical practice. Further, there is no evidence of any difference in surgical morbidity and a low rate of treatment-related mortality from chemotherapy. For both trials, however, we have to wait for the long-term outcome data to determine the significance of these two trials in terms of clinical practice and guidelines.
Recorded at the European Cancer Congress of the European Cancer Organisation (ECCO) 2017 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.