[Combination chemotherapy for gastric cancer including LV/5-FU]

LV (l-LV)/5-FU therapy has been used broadly and is considered to be a standard treatment for large bowel cancer due to an enhancing therapeutic effect of 5-FU. According to recent clinical study reports on large bowel cancer in Europe and the United States, various administration methods of LV/5-FU with a combination of other drugs have been devised. It appeared that 5-FU used together in bolus and continuous infusions have yielded outstanding results. Although the basis of combination therapy for gastric cancer seemed to be LV/5-FU, there were many reports on TS-1 combined with other drugs because the oral medicine TS-1 was domestically available for the past one or two years. Currently, controlled randomized trials of LV/5-FU therapy and TS-1 have been ongoing. However, when patients cannot take oral intakes, LV/5-FU therapy is important. It seems that LV/5-FU therapy in combination with other drugs, in particular, CDDP, CPT-11, paclitaxel, docetaxel, oxaliplatin, and ETP will be given as candidates for the standard treatment of gastric cancer.