COMBINATION OF 5-FU AND EPIRUBICIN IN THE TREATMENT OF ADVANCED GASTRIC CANCER

Abstract

This study was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of 5-FU plus epirubicin in the treatment of the advanced gastric cancer. For this purpose, 22 patients with no previous treatment were studied. All of the patients were unoperable or metastatic. Follow up checking continued for 24 months. Our selected therapeutic regimen consisted of a combination of 500 mg/m2 5-FU dialy for five days, and 75 mg/m2 epirubicin for one day. The response rate in this study was 47.4% and the mean survival rate was 9.7 months. By far, the most common complication was gastrointestinal disturbances and no carditoxicity was seen. Having presented the results of this study and comparing it with the other therapeutic regimens like FAM combination, this selected two drug combination seems to be a useful therapeutic protocol.