High-dose vitamin C prolongs the PFS of patients with RAS mutation

Key clinical point: Adding high-dose vitamin C to first-line chemotherapy does not significantly improve progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) but may benefit patients with RAS mutation.

Major finding: Patients who received high-dose vitamin C plus FOLFOX ± bevacizumab and those who received FOLFOX ± bevacizumab had a similar median PFS (8.6 and 8.3 months, respectively; hazard ratio [HR] 0.86; P  =  .1); however, those with RAS mutation treated with high-dose vitamin C plus FOLFOX ± bevacizumab vs FOLFOX ± bevacizumab had a significantly longer PFS (9.2 vs 7.8 months; HR 0.67; P  =  .01).

Study details: Findings are from a multicenter, phase 3 study that included 442 chemotherapy-naive patients with mCRC who were randomly assigned to receive FOLFOX ± bevacizumab or high-dose vitamin C plus FOLFOX ± bevacizumab.

Disclosures: This study was sponsored by the Sun Yat-sen University Clinical Research 5010 Program, China, among others. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

Source: Wang F et al. A randomized, open-label, multicenter, phase 3 study of high-dose vitamin C plus FOLFOX +/- bevacizumab versus FOLFOX +/- bevacizumab in unresectable untreated metastatic colorectal cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2022 (Aug 5). Doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-22-0655