Dose-Dense Regimen of Cisplatin and Infusional Fluorouracil in Advanced Gastric Cancer—A Single Institution Experience

Ofer Purim, Yulia Kundel, Roni Shapira, Baruch Brenner

Institute of Oncology, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
Institute of Oncology, Davidoff Center, Rabin Medical Center, Petach Tiqwa, and Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.

DOI: 10.4236/jct.2013.42066                

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.

Keywords

Gastric Cancer; Dose-Dense; Cisplatin; Fluorouracil

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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