[Low dose chemotherapy as a means of reducing toxicity]

At present, chemotherapy can seldom cure advanced gastrointestinal cancer. Low dose chemotherapy of regimen might be called palliative chemotherapy, but there has also been a growing interest in low dose chemotherapy as a means of reducing toxicity and improving responses. Several combinations such as low dose cisplatin (CDDP) + protracted infusional 5-fluorouracil(5-FU), leucoborin(IN) + 5-FU, weekly taxane and oral chemotherapy(TS-1) produce objective response in 30-50% of patients, and who get PR can actually enjoy improved QOL during the remission. Therefore, low dose chemotherapy for gastrointestinal cancer will be proposed aiming at some objective and/or subjective response with minimum toxicity to be alive as lons as possible.