Comparison of 5-fluorouracil with ftorafur in adjuvant chemotherapies with combined inductive and maintenance therapies for gastric cancer.
A group of 243 patients with gastric cancer was subjected to a prospective randomized trial of adjuvant chemotherapy after curative gastrectomy. One of the three arms (regimen A) is induction therapy with a three-drug combination of mitomycin C (MMC), 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), and cytosine arabinoside (ara-C) followed by intermittent oral administration of 5-FU for two years (MFC + F). In regimen B, 5-FU in regimen A is replaced by ftorafur, administered on the same schedule as regimen A (MF'C + F'). Regimen C is the control, in which patients are treated by surgery alone. Regimen A was proven effective for the suppression of relapse in the limited groups of moderately locally advanced cancer; five-year survival rates of the subset of stages I, II, and III were 72.1% with regimen A and 53.1% with regimen C (P less than .05). Regimen B yielded a better survival than the control, although the difference did not reach statistical significance. The results seem to favor 5-FU as adjuvant chemotherapy for gastric cancer.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000008:administration & dosage; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D005641:Tegafur / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects
D005641:Tegafur; D005472:Fluorouracil