The incidence of colorectal cancer in elderly patients has increased markedly in China. This study was aimed to analyze the efficacy and tolerance of oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy in elderly patients with advanced colorectal cancer.

We carried out a retrospective analysis using date of 41 advanced colorectal cancer patients who received oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy with an age of 65 years or above.

Among 41 enrolled patients, 24 received XELOX and 17 received FOLFOX. The overall response rate was 36.6%, the disease control rate was 73.2%, including 15 partial response, 15 stable disease and 11 progressive disease. The median progression-free survival and median overall survival was 7.5 months (95%CI: 6.54  8.46 months) and 23.0 months (95%CI: 15.35  30.64 months) respectively. Patients with lower CEA level (CEA≤5ng/ml) before treatment get a longer median progression-free survival than other patients (7.5 months vs 7.0 months; P=0.026), but the overall survival differences did not reach statistical significance. The toxicity was tolerable, the main 3 or 4 grade hematological and non-hematological toxicities were neutropenia (n=6,14.6%) and diarrhea (n=2,4.8%). No treatment-related death was found.

The oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy was efficacy and safety in elderly patients with advanced colorectal cancer, and should be considered as an effective treatment for Chinese elderly patients.