ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Colorectal Cancer
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Strategies for the Discovery of New Therapeutic Targets in Cancer TreatmentView all 20 articles
Explore the efficacy of microwave ablation combined with 1 fruquintinib and tislelizumab in the treatment of metastatic 2 colorectal cancer
Provisionally accepted
- Zhongshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhongshan, China
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Background: Currently, the prognosis for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) remains 6 unfavorable. However, as advancements in local and systemic treatment modalities progress, 8 therapeutic strategies for mCRC are becoming increasingly varied. For patients presenting with a 9 limited number of metastases, the integration of radical local treatment with systemic therapy 10 holds promise for achieving sustained tumor control. This study seeks to investigate the efficacy 11 and safety of combining microwave ablation (MWA) with fruquintinib and tislelizumab in patients 12 with mCRC. 13 Methods: Between March 2022 and September 2022, a screening process was conducted on 14 patients with advanced colorectal cancer and liver metastases who had previously undergone 15 radical colon cancer surgery at our institution. Eligible patients commenced a combined treatment 16 regimen of fruquintinib (5 mg, administered daily from day 1 to day 14) and tislelizumab (200 mg, 17 administered on day 1 every three weeks) within one week following the completion of MWA. 18 Post-surgery, 21 patients received the combination of fruquintinib, a molecular-targeted therapy, 19 and tislelizumab immunotherapy, whereas 34 patients were administered tislelizumab in 20 conjunction with a placebo as the molecular-targeted treatment. The study evaluated all patients' 21 progression-free survival (PFS), objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), and 22 three-year overall survival (OS). 23 Results: In the study, the median PFS was 13.2 months for the experimental group compared to 24 7.35 months for the control group, with 1-year PFS rates of 66.7% and 23.5%, respectively. 25 Tislelizumab monotherapy emerged as an independent risk factor for tumor recurrence, with the 26 experimental group exhibiting a 0.184-fold reduction in recurrence risk relative to the control 27 group (P=0.036). Multivariate Cox regression analysis further identified elevated 28 carcinoembryonic antigen levels and the number of liver metastases as significant risk factors for 29 2 tumor recurrence. Specifically, patients with normal carcinoembryonic antigen levels 30 demonstrated a 0.12-fold lower recurrence risk compared to those with elevated levels (P=0.0002), 31 while patients with a single liver metastasis had a 0.208-fold lower recurrence risk than those with 32 multiple metastases (P=0.0003).
Keywords: fruquintinib, Immunotherapy, Metastatic colorectal cancer, Microwave ablation, tislelizumab
Received: 21 Oct 2025; Accepted: 02 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Qian, zhang, Mo, Wu, Liu, Pen, Fang and Meng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wei Qian
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