Safety, Feasibility, and Efficacy of Capecitabine Maintenance in Patients With Advanced Gastric Cancer: A Retrospective Study.
Gastric cancer is still one of the cancers with highest mortality. Most patients present with advanced-stage disease. Palliative chemotherapy is usually the only treatment option for patients with advanced gastric cancer (AGC). Maintenance chemotherapy is an evolving concept in medical oncology. Maintenance chemotherapy can be administered with the same drug(s) in the initial regimen or with an alternative agent. In this article, we report our experience with capecitabine as a maintenance agent for patients with AGC. No treatment-related death was observed due to use of capecitabine. Median progression-free survival was 10.4 months, and median overall survival was 19.7 months. Activity and toxicity profile of capecitabine seems favorable as a maintenance agent in AGC. We believe that capecitabine deserves further trials as a maintenance agent for patients with AGC.
Departments of 1Clinical Oncology and 2Internal Medicine, Yeditepe University Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
Orhan Onder
OO
Eren
Mehmet Akif
MA
Ozturk
Ozlem Uysal
OU
Sonmez
Basak
B
Oyan
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000069287:Capecitabine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D000069287:Capecitabine