[The optimal period for orally administered fluoropyrimidines as an adjuvant chemotherapy for gastric cancer--a pilot study using 5-FU tablets compared with surgical operation alone].
Long-term oral administration of fluoropyrimidines such as 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or tegafur is commonly used as an adjuvant chemotherapy for gastric cancer, but the optimal period or optimal total doses of fluoropyrimidines have not been studied. Two hundred cases of macroscopical Stage II and III curatively resected gastric cancer patients were entered in this study, and divided into three groups (6 months group: mitomycin C was given i.v. at day 0 and day 1 and 5-FU tablets were orally administered at a dose of 200 mg/day for 6 months. 12 months group: MMC was given the same as for the 6 months group and 5-FU tablets were administered for 12 months. Surgery alone group: No chemotherapy, operation only). As the result, 185 cases were eligible. There was no significant difference between the 6 months group and the 12 months group among Stage II patients. Although there was also no significant difference between the 2 groups in Stage III patients, the survival curve of 12 months group was always higher than in the 6 months group. When comparing with surgery alone group, 5-year survival of the 12 months group was always higher than in the surgery alone group of Stage III patients; however, the survival rate in the 6 months group was worse than in the surgery alone group at Stage II and III. These results suggest that MMC i.v. and 12 months or over administration of 5-FU tablets is useful for Stage III gastric cancer patients, and that cooperative study is required comparing with surgery alone in Stage II patients.
Third Dept. of Surgery, Nihon University School of Medicine.
M
M
Fujii
T
T
Sakabe
K
K
Wakabayashi
M
M
Kochi
F
F
Mochizuki
Y
Y
Kasakura
M
M
Yamagata
M
M
Noro
T
T
Osawa
S
S
Iwai
D000284:Administration, Oral; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D005260:Female; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016685:Mitomycin / Q000008:administration & dosage; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D015996:Survival Rate; D013607:Tablets
D013607:Tablets; D016685:Mitomycin; D005472:Fluorouracil