A drug to treat colon cancer is proving much more convenient than traditional chemotherapy, has fewer side effects – and is giving patients a better chance of surviving the disease.

“Standard chemotherapy can be incredibly disruptive to people’s lives,” said Prof Professor Chris Twelves of the University of Leeds, who led the research. “Patients visit hospital five days a week for the injections and then have three weeks off before returning to hospital for the next course – and the side effects can be unpleasant.”

The oral chemotherapy drug Xeloda (capecitabine) offers fewer side-effects and less time in hospital – and the trial has shown that patients given the drug were at least as likely to be alive and free of their disease as those on standard chemotherapy (the Mayo Clinic regimen).

The research showed that about 71 percent of patients given Xeloda were still alive after five years, compared to 68 percent of patients treated with standard chemotherapy injections.

Prof Twelves’s study followed 1,987 patients who had undergone colon cancer surgery. It found that patients treated with Xeloda spent 85 percent less time with their doctor or at the hospital, and experienced fewer side effects. The latest results showing patients’ five-year survival rates confirm the effectiveness of the treatment.

“We now have long-term evidence now that clearly supports Xeloda's superiority over the Mayo Clinic regimen,” said Prof Twelves. “There is now no reason why we should ask colon cancer patients to endure the burdens associated with that older treatment.”

Notes to editors

Xeloda is manufactured by Roche Holding AG, the world's biggest maker of cancer medicines. The study's initial results helped the Swiss-based company win European and US approval in 2005 for using Xeloda to treat colon cancer after surgery. The medicine also is cleared for breast tumours, and in March Roche won European approval for its use with chemotherapy in people with advanced stomach cancer.

About 945,000 new cases of colorectal cancer are diagnosed each year globally, and the disease is responsible for about 492,000 deaths, according to Roche. The cancer is curable when caught early.

Chris Twelves is professor of clinical cancer pharmacology and oncology at the University of Leeds, working on cancer drug development and translational research with clinicians and scientists in Leeds and Bradford.

Early in 2008, Prof Twelves will join colleagues in the new regional oncology centre currently under construction at St James's Hospital in Leeds. The new wing will centralise and expand a number of key cancer services for Leeds and the wider region, providing all non-surgical oncology services – radiotherapy, chemotherapy, clinical haematology and palliative care – and a small number of specialist surgical services.

The drug development programme at the University of Leeds is centred on the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine (LIMM), a newly created Institute in the Faculty of Medicine and located on the St James's University Hospital site, part at Chapel Allerton and part on the University's central Leeds campus. LIMM is dedicated to research into defining the molecules involved in human diseases and in translational research to convert these studies into novel therapies and new drugs. More about the work of the Institute can be found here: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/medhealth/limm/themes.html

Further information about the drug can be found here: http://xeloda.roche.com/

Further information

Prof Chris Twelves is available for interview. Please contact via the University of Leeds press office on 0113 343 4031.

Earlier findings from the study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. A PDF file of that paper is available on request.