Locally advanced colon cancer is associated with a high risk of recurrence, while evidence supporting neoadjuvant chemotherapy from phase III trials remains limited despite its potential to improve long-term outcomes. To address this gap, a clinical study evaluated whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy could improve disease-free survival compared with upfront surgery in 248 patients with locally advanced colon cancer. The study found that 3-year disease-free survival (DFS) was 87% in the upfront surgery arm compared with 83% in the neoadjuvant chemotherapy arm, demonstrating no significant difference between treatment strategies.
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy was feasible and safe, resulted in tumor downstaging, and significantly reduced the proportion of patients requiring adjuvant chemotherapy compared with upfront surgery (59% vs 73%). Exploratory analyses suggested that outcomes may vary…
