Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 27, Issue 3 174-179, Copyright © 1997 by Foundation for Promotion of Cancer Research
WS Wang, FS Fan, RK Hsieh, TJ Chiou, JK Lin, TC Lin, CC Yen, JH Liu, H Hsu and PM Chen
5-Fluorouracil in combination with leucovorin has been shown to be active
in therapeutic trials of metastatic colorectal carcinoma. In this study, we
administered these drugs to 72 patients with metastatic colorectal
carcinoma. Thirty-six of them without previous exposure to 5-fluorouracil
were treated with weekly bolus injections of 5-fluorouracil (425 mg/m2) and
leucovorin (25 mg/m2) supplemented with oral levamisole. Another 36
patients with or without prior 5-fluorouracil treatment received
5-fluorouracil 3,000 mg/m2 and leucovorin 300 mg/m2 in a 48-hour continuous
infusion every two weeks. Clinical efficacy and toxicity were assessed by
WHO criteria. Variables were tested for relations to response and survival
by univariate and multivariate analysis. The response rate was 19.4% in
weekly bolus arm and 13.9% in biweekly high-dose infusion arm (P = 0.527).
Median survivals in the two arms were 18.4 months (weekly) and 21 months
(biweekly) respectively (P = 0.708). Gastrointestinal side effects
including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and mucositia were the major
toxicities of these regimens. By multivariate analysis, the only factor to
influence response rate was the site of metastases (P = 0.009). The only
factor to affect survival was performance status of the patient (P =
0.0001). We concluded that the two 5-fluorouracil based regimens are
well-tolerated and shown to have a response rate comparable with previous
reports of similar regimens in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.
Only liver metastases seemed to have a better response to therapy.
Performance status is the most important prognostic factor in patients with
metastatic colorectal cancer.
CASE REPORTS
Factors predictive of response and survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer in Taiwan
Department of Medicine, Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, Taiwan.
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