Dr. Howard S. Hochster on TAS-102 Compared to 5FU

Howard S. Hochster, MD, professor of Medicine and Associate Director for Clinical Sciences, Yale Cancer Center, discusses the potential of TAS-102 for colorectal cancer.

TAS-102 was evaluated in the RECOURSE study, which included 800 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who were refractory or intolerant to standard therapies.

The drug has a very short half life, around 6 hours, and be given twice a day. It is a different kind of antimetabolite than 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and is active in 5FU- resistant cells pre-clinically, says Hochster. The drug has a lot of potential to be combined with other agents, including targeted therapies. It may the basis for a lot of chemotherapy programs across multiple tumor types and will serve as a good alternative to 5FU, says Hochster.