TITLE:
Dose-Dense Regimen of Cisplatin and Infusional Fluorouracil in Advanced Gastric Cancer—A Single Institution Experience
AUTHORS:
Ofer Purim, Yulia Kundel, Roni Shapira, Baruch Brenner
KEYWORDS:
Gastric Cancer; Dose-Dense; Cisplatin; Fluorouracil
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Cancer Therapy,
Vol.4 No.2,
April
15,
2013
ABSTRACT: Chemotherapy with continuous infusion of 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin in a monthly schedule is one of the most common regimens in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of a dosedense administration of this regimen in this patient population. Sixty-six consecutive patients with previously untreated histologically confirmed unresectable or metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma were treated with a 2-hour infusion of cisplatin 100 mg/m2 followed by continuous infusion of 5-fluorouracil 1000 mg/m2/day for 5 days, every 21 days. The most common grade ≥3 toxicities were fatigue (42%), nausea/vomiting (30%) and leucopenia (12%). Four patients (6%) died from treatment-related toxicity. The response rate was 35%, the median progression-free survival was 4.3 months and the median survival was 5.9 months. In light of these results, the dose-dense approach seems to offer little, if any, benefit compared with the standard regimens.