Pemetrexed Alone as Salvage Treatment in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients Who Were Failed After Standard Chemotherapy: A Phase II Single Arm Prospective Study

Pemetrexed is an anticancer agent that exerts its action by disrupting crucial folate-dependent metabolic processes essential for cell replication. In vitro studies have shown that pemetrexed behaves as a multitargeted antifolate by inhibiting thymidylate synthase (TS), dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), and glycinamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase (GARFT), which are key folate-dependent enzymes for the de novo biosynthesis of thymidine and purine nucleotides.Pemetrexed is used as a standard therapeutic agent for lung cancer, pleural mesothelioma, peritoneal mesothelioma.In addition to these effective anti-cancer effect, Pemetrexed is not severe side effects of the medicine. Pemetrexed has been research in colon cancer. Zhang, etc., demonstrated the anti-cancer effect of Pemetrexed in human colon cancer Cells. Although sometimes made also two or more clinical studies, Pemetrexed was reported 15-17% of the treatment response rate in these two studies.