Chemotherapy before surgery ‘cuts risk of bowel cancer return by 28%’

The study, funded by Cancer Research UK, suggests at least 5,000 patients in the UK every year could benefit from a tweak to how they receive chemotherapy.

At present, chemotherapy is given after surgery to try to capture stray cancer cells that could lead to the disease coming back.

But, under the new regime, patients would receive six weeks of chemotherapy, have surgery and then 18 weeks more chemotherapy, with the effect of giving people a bigger chance of beating the disease.

The FOxTROT trial, led by the universities of Birmingham and Leeds, involved 1,053 patients at 85 hospitals in the UK, Denmark and Sweden.

It found that giving chemotherapy before and after surgery led to a 28% reduced risk in the disease coming back within two years compared to chemotherapy after surgery.

Scientists believe this approach could be adopted across the NHS and in countries worldwide, benefiting hundreds of thousands of patients every year.

Dr Laura Magill, associate professor at the Birmingham clinical trials unit, said: “Up to one in three colon cancer patients can see their cancer come back after surgery.

“That figure is far too high and we need new treatment strategies to stop colon cancer coming back.

“The standard approach has been to give chemotherapy after surgery to eradicate any cancer cells that might have spread before surgery.

“But our research shows that giving some of that chemotherapy before surgery increases the chances that all cancer cells will be killed.”

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