[Effect of PMUE therapy (CDDP, MMC, UFT, etoposide) in terminal gastric cancer]

CDDP, MMC, UFT and Etoposide (PMUE)-combined therapy was applied to 60 cases of terminal gastric cancer to examine its effectiveness. PMUE therapy consists of i.v. injection of CDDP 75 mg/body and MMC 10 mg/body on day 1, i.v. injection of Etoposide 50 mg/body on days 3, 4 and 5 and consecutive daily administration of UFT 400 mg/body, with 3 weeks as one course. Of 42 cases having estimable lesions, 23 (53.8%) showed high rate of effectiveness (PR). Especially, of 23 cases receiving no previous treatment, 15 (65.2%) benefitted by the therapy (PR) and 9 (69.2%) of 13 non-resected cases, to a wonderful extent. Five non-resected cases showed such a reduction in tumor size as made gastrectomy possible. As for the prognosis, one year-survival rate was 34.3, 49.0 and 16.0% for all 42 cases, 23 effective cases and 19 ineffective cases, respectively, with significant (p less than 0.001) prognostic prolongation for effective cases compared with ineffective ones. Side effects were digestive symptoms (85.7%), epilation (81.0%) and myelopathy (73.8%), which were all transitory and recovered. The present PMUE therapy was regarded as one of the best combined chemotherapies for terminal gastric cancer.