[Experience of weekly paclitaxel combined with orally administered doxifluridine therapy for advanced and recurrent gastric cancer-preliminary study].

We designed a new regimen to evaluate the efficacy and feasibility of weekly paclitaxel combined with orally administered 5'-DFUR therapy against advanced and recurrent gastric cancer. Nine patients were enrolled. Weekly paclitaxel administration (PTX 60 mg/m2, 2 consecutive weeks, 1-week break) and oral administration of 5'-DFUR (460 mg/m2, 14 consecutive days) were performed on an ambulatory basis. This was repeated every 3 weeks until disease progression and/or severe toxic events occurred. The overall response rate was 44.4% with 22.2% complete response and 22.2% partial response in addition to 44.4% no changes beyond 3 months. In NC criteria, 3 patients showed clinical improvements, such as decreasing tumor markers, releasing from the ileus, and improvement of liver dysfunction. These results suggested that clinical benefits in 89% of patients. On the other hand, toxic events were restricted to grade 3 with 11.1% general fatigue and 11.1% appetite loss. Therefore, the weekly administration of PTX in conjunction with daily oral administration of 5'-DFUR therapy seems to be extremely useful, with excellent anti-tumor effect and tolerable adverse reactions for the treatment of recurrent gastric cancer on an ambulatory basis.