Adding chemotherapy to a targeted drug for advanced bowel cancer

This trial is testing whether continuing encorafenib and cetuximab — two drugs that target a specific genetic mutation in bowel cancer cells — works better when combined with chemotherapy (FOLFIRI) for people whose cancer has started growing again despite initial treatment. You would receive all three medications together to see if this combination can stop or slow the cancer's growth longer than the original two-drug treatment alone.

Some patients with this type of bowel cancer do well initially on the two-drug combination, but their cancer eventually starts growing again. Researchers want to know if adding chemotherapy at that point — rather than switching to a completely different treatment — might give patients more time before their cancer progresses further.