Key clinical point: Maintenance therapy may prolong progression-free survival (PFS), but not overall survival (OS), after first-line therapy in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

Major finding: Maintenance provided a PFS benefit over observation (hazard ratio, 0.58; 95% confidence interval, 0.43-0.77), but there was no OS benefit with maintenance (HR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.83-1.01). Continuous induction did not provide a PFS or OS benefit over maintenance or observation.

Study details: A review and network meta-analysis of 12 phase 2 and 3 trials including a total of 5,540 patients.

Disclosures: Dr. Sonbol did not disclose any conflicts of interest. Other authors disclosed relationships with multiple pharmaceutical companies.