FOLFIRI with bevacizumab chemotherapy for a patient with recurrence of rectal cancer under haemodialysis for chronic renal failure

As pharmacokinetics in patients undergoing haemodialysis is different from patients with normal renal function, it remains unclear whether chemotherapy can be performed safely for patients with haemodialysis as well as those who have normal renal function. Here, we report a case with recurrence of rectal cancer who received FOLFIRI with bevacizumab chemotherapy under haemodialysis, and obtained good tumor control. A 47-year-old woman had undergone haemodialysis for 10 years due to chronic renal failure. At 45 years of age, she received abdominoperineal resection due to rectal cancer (pStage II). Four months after the surgery, liver metastasis was found, for which partial resection of the liver and adjuvant chemotherapy [UFT (400 mg/body)/UZEL (75 mg/body)] were performed. Eighteen months after the liver resection, multiple lung metastases were found. Therefore, intensive chemotherapy using FOLFIRI (CPT-11: 90 mg/m²) with bevacizumab (2.5 mg/m²) was performed. Severe neutropenia (grade 3, 4), but not non-hematologic adverse events such as diarrhea and bevacizumab-specific adverse events, was observed. As she did not recover easily from neutropenia in spite of treatment with G-CSF, a dose reduction of the FOLFIRI regimen was gradually performed. Although chemotherapy was conducted approximately monthly, the tumor response reflected a stable disease 8 months after 8 courses of chemotherapy. We suggest that it is important to investigate the pharmacokinetics of toxic agents such as CPT-11, (SN38) for dose modification, and for the safe and continuous chemotherapy of patients receiving haemodialysis.