Adjuvant systemic chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin in colon cancer: a monoinstitutional institutional experience.
The efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy in colon cancer has been well established in clinical trials, yet data on its routinely clinical practice are few. Two hundred forty-one patients were treated with fluorouracil-based adjuvant therapy from 1996 to 2001 and 147 out of 241 patients consecutively treated was aged 65 years or more at the time of diagnosis. Kaplan-Meyer progression-free survival and overall survival of stage II and III patients were calculated, the same statistic analyses were done for elderly population. Three- and 5-year overall survivals were respectively 94.4% and 90.4%. The survival observed in our retrospective study reflects that reported in the chemotherapy arm of randomized clinical trials. As expected, stage II patients survival was better than that of stage III patients (p = 0.0019, log-rank test). The treatment was generally well tolerated and there was no therapy related death and no clinical immonotoxicological effects was observed also in elderly patients.
Operative Unit of Medical Oncology, Istituto Oncologico Veneto IRCCS, Padua, Italy. jirillo@libero.it
Antonio
A
Jirillo
Michaela
M
Stefani
Federica
F
Vascon
Sara
S
Lonardi
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000964:Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant / Q000379:methods; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D002955:Leucovorin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D014803:Vitamin B Complex / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D000964:Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic; D014803:Vitamin B Complex; D002955:Leucovorin; D005472:Fluorouracil