Evaluation of Octreotide LAR in Prevention of Chemotherapy-induced Diarrhea

Eligible patients will have a diagnosis of colorectal cancer, and will be candidates to adjuvant chemotherapy or first-line chemotherapy for metastatic disease with a regimen containing fluorouracil, capecitabine and/or irinotecan. Eligible chemotherapy regimens include Irinotecan, Leucovorin (folinic acid), and Fluorouracil(IFL), Leucovorin, Fluorouracil, and Irinotecan (FOLFIRI), combinations of Irinotecan and Capecitabine, the Roswell Park regimen and the Mayo Clinic regimen, all of them without or with Oxaliplatin, Bevacizumab or Cetuximab. Patients receiving Erlotinib, or other Tyrosine-kinase, Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR)-inhibitors, will not be eligible. The acute treatment for diarrhea will be left to physician's discretion in both groups. Patients in the control arm will be treated without Octreotide LAR. Patients in the experimental arm will receive the first dose of Octreotide LAR (30 mg) at chemotherapy initiation, in addition to a minimum of two more identical monthly doses of Octreotide LAR (with an interval of 28 days between them), until chemotherapy is discontinued or for a maximum of six doses of Octreotide LAR, whichever occurs first. Patient evaluation will be done at each cycle for efficacy and toxicity.