capecitabine

Research Excerpts

Overview

Capecitabine is an orally administered prodrug that converts preferentially to 5-fluorouracil within tumors. It is commonly used as adjuvant chemotherapy in colorectal cancer patients. Cape citabine, which is a first-line treatment for patients with metastatic colon cancer was also evaluated.

Effects

Capecitabine has a favourable safety profile. Most frequent adverse events are hand-foot syndrome, stomatitis and diarrhoea. Can be given safely to patients with advanced age, hepatic and renal dysfunctions.

Capecitabine has been investigated in early breast cancer in several studies, but it was undefined that whether it could improve survival. It has been approved for breast cancer patients whose disease is paclitaxel-resistant, and either anthracycline and either oxaliplatin.

Actions

Capecitabine can cause severe hypersensitivity reactions which can be dangerous and life-threatening. It may inhibit the growth and metastasis of HCC.

Treatment

Capecitabine is an oral treatment of choice for colorectal and breast cancer in Morocco. Treatment may be associated with a decrease in the incidence of SCCs in SOTRs.

Toxicity

Hand-foot syndrome (HFS) is the only clinical adverse event occurring more often during capecitabine treatment. The cape citabine-related adverse events included leukopenia, anemia, and thrombocytopenia. Screening of patients for DPYD mutations prior to treatment using new pharmacogenetic testing methods.

Pharmacokinetics

The study was to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) of the combination of weekly oxaliplatin x 4, weekly irinotecan x 4 and capecitabine.

Compound-Compound Interactions

Irinotecan in combination with capecitabine is a well tolerated regimen. No dose-limiting toxicities were noted at all bortezomib dose levels when administered with full dose cape citabine and oxaliplatin.

Bioavailability

Capecitabine is an orally bioavailable prodrug that is converted to 5-fluorouracil through several enzymatic steps, the last of which is mediated by thymidine phosphorylase (TP) In adults, cape citabine has a bioavailability of approximately 100% with a Cmax of 3.

Dosage Studied

Capecitabine is replacing continuous infusion fluorouracil as the backbone of combination chemotherapy in advanced gastric cancer patients. Data are limited with regard to adverse events and dosing practices associated with cape citabine monotherapy in real-world situations.