Aflibercept and 5-FU vs. FOLFOX as 1st Line Treatment for Elderly or Frail Elderly Patients With Met. Colorectal Cancer

The current trial seeks to evaluate a new treatment option for elderly / frail elderly patients with mCRC including 5-FU - better tolerated than capecitabine in the FOCUS2 study - in conjunction with aflibercept, a broad active anti-angiogenic drug within a randomized phase-II setting. Patients will be randomized using a 1:1 randomization between 5-FU / aflibercept and 5-FU / oxaliplatin using the oxaliplatin-based regimen established in FOCUS2 trial. Main goal is to estimate the 6-months PFS rate with 5-FU / Aflibercept and the safety of this regimen. The decision to use a randomized phase-II design using the "FOCUS2- FOLFOX" is based on two assumptions; (i) Bias can be better controlled by using a randomized phase-II design (ii) A clear standard regimen in frail elderly cannot be defined, but FOLFOX was superior to 5-FU alone in FOCUS2 and the patient population included in the FOCUS2 study represents the patient population scheduled to be included in the current trial. Provided the randomized phase-II study shows adequate efficacy of 5-FU / aflibercept and a tolerable safety profile, the study will be carried on to the phase-III part of the trial. Description of the terms and conditions to expand the current trial are not part of this protocol. Briefly, a potential phase-III study should aim at showing non-inferiority of 5-FU / aflibercept regarding 6-months PFS rate as primary endpoint. This would allow to include all patients from the phase-II part in the phase-III study in order to save time and patients.