title: Clinical strategies in the chemotherapy of gastrointestinal cancer.
abstract: Clinical strategy in chemotherapy of gastrointestinal cancer depends on availability of drugs with single-agent activity. If active drugs are available, combination chemotherapy trials can be developed. In gastric cancer, combinations of 5-fluorouracil with chloroethyl nitrosoureas or adriamycin and mitomycin C are capable of producing responses in 40-50% of patients. Such active combinations may now be evaluated in patients with less advanced gastric carcinoma. The role of combination chemotherapy is now being defined in patients with locally unresectable cancer and in the surgical adjuvant situation. In pancreatic and colorectal cancer, combination chemotherapy regimens have been of marginal effectiveness. The major thrust of clinical investigation must be directed toward phase II evaluations of single agents in these diseases.
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D004341:Drug Evaluation; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005770:Gastrointestinal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D012075:Remission, Spontaneous; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents