Effectiveness of Low-dose CDDP and 5FU Bolus Administration for the Treatment of Advanced Gastrointestinal Cancer: Emphasis on Long-NC Cases

Keiichi Ueno, Shinichirou Yoshitani, Toshiyuki Nitan, Kazuo Kitabayashi, Yasuharu Nakano, Hitoshi Saito, Takeo Kosaka, Ichirou Kita and Shigeki Takashima

Department of General and Digestive Surgery, Kanazawa Medical University

We studied the therapeutic outcome of low-dose Cis-diammine-dichloroplatinum (CDDP) and 5-fluorouracil (5FU) administration our department used to treat advanced gastrointestinal cancer. Long nonchanged (NC) cases consisted of patients in whom no changes were seen for at least 6 months. Dormant cases consisted of those in whom no changes were seen for at least 6 months and tumor markers did not increase during this period. In the 115 cases analyzed, our present therapy was significantly effective (complete response: CR+partial response: PR) in 11 cases (9.6%) and effective (CR+PR+long-NC) in 30 cases (26.1%). There were 19 long-NC cases and 9 dormant ones. Survival among significantly effective and effective cases was significantly longer than in patients with progressive disease (PD). More effective results were seen in patients undergoing intraarterial administration than in intravenous administration, and at least 3 course were conducted in every effective case. Between the dormant and PD cases, the pretherapy Onodera index, number of courses, and ratio of patients on pyrimidine fluoride were higher in dormant than PD cases. The present therapy extended patient survival and reduced stress, marking it useful in establishing and maintaining the tumor-dormant state.

Key words
combination therapy of low-dose CDDP and low dose 5FU, advanced gastrointestinal cancer, tumor dormancy

Reprint requests
Keiichi Ueno Department of General and Digestive Surgery, Kanazawa Medical University 1-1 Daigaku, Uchinada-machi, Kahoku-gun, Ishikawa, 920-0293 JAPAN

Accepted
December 19, 2000

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