Long-term survival of an elderly female with metastatic colon cancer after treated with capecitabine monotherapy: A case report

RATIONALE: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers all over the world, and approximately 70% of the newly diagnosed patients are over 65 years old. Due to the aging of society, there will be more and more elderly patients of CRC in the future. Treatment of CRC in elderly patients is much more challenging thanks to multiple factors including disabling comorbidities as well as declines in organs function, especially in advanced or metastatic settings. PATIENT CONCERNS: An 82-year-old female without history of disease was admitted to the emergency room because of abdominal pain in December 2009. A computed tomography (CT) scan of the abdomen was performed immediately, which revealed bowel obstruction. DIAGNOSES: The histopathological examination of the resected specimen confirmed well-to-moderately differentiated colonic adenocarcinoma with a stage of IIIB (T3N1M0) based on the NCCN tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) classification system. INTERVENTIONS: The patient underwent emergency surgery and rejected adjuvant chemotherapy, but was diagnosed with multiple liver metastases 3 months later. Then she received capecitabine monotherapy as first-line treatment. OUTCOMES: The efficacy achieved complete response (CR) when 8 cycles were completed and the agent was continued as maintenance treatment until totally 16 cycles were completed. Up to the latest follow-up, the disease remained CR and the progression-free survival (PFS) has achieved approximately 87 months. She is still alive and has good quality of life. LESSONS: Capecitabine monotherapy may be an effective treatment in advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) for elderly patients.