Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cause of cancer-related death in Hong Kong. The traditional chemotherapy for CRC remains on intravenous (IV) fluorouracil (5-FU) based regimens with the response rates of 10-20% and a median survival of approximately one year. Recent years, oral chemotherapy has a more practical and economic advantages over IV regimen. It is understandable that patients prefer oral regimens as long as the clinical efficacy is maintained. Oral treatment strategy preserves quality of life for CRC patients. In a previous cost-minimization study conducted in Hong Kong, it was demonstrated that capecitabine was more cost-effective than 5-FU plus oxaliplatin assuming they had equal clinical efficacy. Not only is capecitabine more cost-effective, it may also have additional cost saving in the nursing and pharmacy time . It is because a significant amount of time can be saved in both nursing and pharmacy for the preparation and administration of IV chemotherapy. In the UK, it was demonstrated that capecitabine required less pharmacy and administration time per cycle than 5-FU based IV chemotherapy. However, there is a lack of local data to demonstrate the impact of pharmacy and nursing care utilizing capecitabine comparing to traditional IV chemotherapy in CRC patients of Hong Kong.
