A randomized clinical trial of adjuvant chemotherapy after resection in patients with stomach cancer.
A study group including 55 institutions in Japan evaluated the effect of adjuvant cyclophosphamide therapy on 461 patients who had undergone curative resection for stomach cancer. Patients, who were followed up for over three years, were randomly divided into three groups: curative resection and long-term drug therapy; curative resection and short-term drug therapy; and curative resection and no drug therapy. Long-term therapy consisted of (a) twice-weekly intravenous doses of 500 mg of cyclophosphamide for four weeks and, after five weeks with no medication, (b) 100 mg/day, given orally, for 40 days and, after ten weeks with no medication, (c) 100 mg/day, given orally, for 40 days. Short-term therapy consisted of only the first course of therapy (ie, twice-weekly intravenous doses of 500 mg for four weeks). The effect of cyclophosphamide differed, depending on the patients' levels of serosal and lymph node invasion: Short-term therapy was more effective in patients with lymph node involvement, and long-term therapy was more effective in patients with serosal involvement.
D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003520:Cyclophosphamide / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005743:Gastrectomy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011182:Postoperative Care; D011897:Random Allocation; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D013997:Time Factors
D003520:Cyclophosphamide