Does the Addition of Cetuximab to Radiochemotherapy Improve Outcome of Patients with Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer? Long-Term Results from Phase II Trials

Table 1

Characteristics of patients with locally advanced rectal cancer receiving capecitabine/irinotecan +/− cetuximab based chemoradiotherapy as preoperative treatment.

	Capecitabine/irinotecan ()	Capecitabine/irinotecan + cetuximab ()	value
Gender, (%)
Male	29 (78)	33 (67)
Female	8 (22)	16 (33)
Fisher’s exact test			0.33
Age (years); median (range)	60 (34–82)	57 (33–80)
Unpaired -test			0.79
Clinical TNM stage, (%)
cT1	0 (0)	0 (0)
cT2	4 (11)	9 (18)
cT3	28 (76)	36 (73)
cT4	4 (11)	4 (8)
cTx	1 (3)	0 (0)
Chi square			0.62
cN−	6 (16)	15 (31)
cN+	31 (84)	34 (69)
Fisher’s exact test			0.14
Tumor distance from anal verge (cm); median (range)	6 (2–13)	7 (0–13)
Unpaired -test			0.77
KRAS status, (%)
KRAS wild-type	n.a.	32 (65)
KRAS mutation	n.a.	13 (27)
KRAS unknown	n.a.	4 (8)
Surgical technique
Low anterior resection	31	41
Abdominoperineal resection	6	7
Hartmann’s operation	0	1
Chi square			0.67
Time to resection (days), median (range)	39 (21–79)	38 (21–67)
Unpaired -test			0.94

n.a.: not applicable.