Eloxatin (Sanofi) improves Colon Cancer survival

Stage III Colon Cancer patients in the general population who receive adjuvant treatment for the disease have an improved rate of survival when Eloxatin (oxaliplatin) is added to 5-fluorouracil. It's known that adding Eloxatin to adjuvant 5FU improve outcomes of patients with stage III Colon Cancer in randomised clinical trials (RCTs) but the effect of this therapy outside RCTs is unknown. So researchers led by Hanna K. Sanoff, assistant professor of Medicine, Hematology and Oncology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, gathered data from patients using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry linked to Medicare claims (SEER-Medicare), among other cancer registries. The researchers found that adding Eloxatin to adjuvant therapies for stage III Colon Cancer in patients of the general cancer population was just as effective as in patients from RCTs. The addition of Eloxatin showed improved survival across various practice settings, including those with older and minority patients as well as patients with greater comorbidity. See: "Comparative Effectiveness of Oxaliplatin vs Non�Oxaliplatin-containing Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Stage III Colon Cancer" by Hanna K. Sanoff et al. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, January 20, 2012 DOI:10.1093/jnci/djr524