title: Capecitabine: in advanced gastric or oesophagogastric cancer.
abstract: The oral fluoropyrimidine capecitabine is metabolised preferentially in tumour tissue to the cytotoxic moiety fluorouracil. In a well designed phase III trial in patients with advanced gastric cancer, capecitabine plus cisplatin was noninferior to fluorouracil plus cisplatin in terms of progression-free survival (hazard ratio [HR] 0.81 [95% CI 0.63, 1.04]). In another similarly designed phase III trial in patients with oesophagogastric cancer (REAL 2), pooled capecitabine-based regimens were noninferior to pooled fluorouracil-based regimens in terms of overall survival (HR 0.86 [95% CI 0.80, 0.99]). These data are supported by randomised and noncomparative phase II trials in treatment-naive or pretreated patients with advanced gastric cancer or oesophagogastric cancer receiving capecitabine either as monotherapy or in combination with other antitumour agents. Given the nature of chemotherapy, capecitabine-based regimens were generally well tolerated, with the nature of treatment-related adverse events occurring with capecitabine-based regimens being similar to those of fluorouracil-based regimens.
authors.affiliation: Wolters Kluwer Health | Adis, Auckland, New Zealand, an editorial office of Wolters Kluwer Health, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, USA. demail@adis.co.nz
authors.forename: Sohita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dhillon
authors.forename: Lesley J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Scott
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000964:Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000069287:Capecitabine; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003841:Deoxycytidine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D011355:Prodrugs / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000964:Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic; D011355:Prodrugs; D003841:Deoxycytidine; D000069287:Capecitabine; D005472:Fluorouracil