Clinical characterization of long benefiters
death
A subgroup of 14 patients, hereinafter referred to as long benefiters, experienced a favorable outcome with regorafenib, being on treatment for >6 months. Conversely, 32 patients, defined as poor benefiters, were on treatment for <6 months.According to baseline characteristics, long benefiters most frequently presented with a single metastatic site (The median treatment duration was 9.0 months (95% CI 8.0-10.2 months) for long benefiters and 1.7 months (95% CI 1.4-2.5 months) for poor benefiters, corresponding to a total of nine cycles (IQR 8-10) versus two cycles (IQR 2-3), respectively. However, no difference in treatment delay and RDI was reported among the two groups (At study treatment discontinuation, third-line chemotherapy was given to a total of 37 patients (80.4%), of which 10 were long benefiters (71%) and 27 were poor benefiters (84%) (The median PFS at subsequent line of therapy (mPFS2), calculated from study entry to progression to a subsequent line of treatment, or death, whichever occurred first, was 13.3 months (95% CI 8.4-19.7 months) in the overall population, and was longer in long benefiters with 23.3 months (95% CI 13.3-39.9 months) as compared to poor responders with 8.4 months (95% CI 6.1-13.3 months). Of note, PFS2 calculation included also patients who did not start a subsequent line due to death or clinical deterioration (At the baseline metabolic assessment, significantly lower median total SUVmax values were observed in long benefiters 12.5 (IQR 7.0-18.7) as compared to poor benefiters 26.8 (IQR 17.1-38.8), No difference was observed between the two groups with respect to early metabolic response (As a measure of regorafenib activity, GMI and modified PFS ratio were calculated in long benefiters. The median GMI in long benefiters was 0.89 (IQ 0.57-1.93) with 43% of patients (