Brain metastasis (BM) from colorectal cancer (CRC) is rare and associated with poor prognosis. The mainstay of treatment for BM from CRC is radiotherapy, systemic treatment options for CRC can include novel targeted agents, conventional chemotherapy or a combination of both. Nevertheless, the efficacy of these systemic treatment options against BM from CRC is not yet fully established. Cetuximab, a monoclonal antibody, has been shown to be effective in patients with KRAS wild-type metastatic CRC. The combination of cetuximab with oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy is commonly utilized as a systemic treatment for metastatic CRC. Hereby, we report a case of BM from CRC with significant response after capecitabine and oxaliplatin (XELOX) combined with cetuximab.
Keywords: brain metastasis; cetuximab; colorectal cancer; targeted agents.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) with spread to the brain (brain metastasis) is uncommon and often has a bad outcome. The main modality of treatment is usually radiotherapy. Other treatment options for CRC that has spread to the body can include new agents, classical chemotherapy drugs or both. But we do not know for sure if these agents are effective in treating spread to the brain from CRC. Cetuximab, is one of the relatively new drugs that is being used to treat certain genetic types of CRC with spread to the body, particularly when given together with other chemotherapy drugs known as XELOX. Here, we report a case of a brain mass that has spread from CRC. This brain mass showed a significant response to the regimen of cetuximab with XELOX. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a patient whose brain metastasis from CRC has responded well to this drug treatment alone before any radiation therapy.