[Adjuvant chemotherapy of colorectal cancer--results of prospective randomized trials]

The group of research for colorectal cancer treatments-Kajitani-group (chief T. Kajitani) has carried out the co-operative study for the evaluation of adjuvant chemotherapy after curative resection of colorectal cancer. During the period 1975 and 1978, a series of 1,156 cases of cancer of colon and rectum were entered into the prospective randomized controlled study which consisted of three treatment programs. There included chemotherapy of 2 modes of regimen combining MMC with Tegaful and non adjuvant treatment as control. In colon cancer, adjuvant chemotherapy combining MMC with Tegaful was effective on the increasing of survival rates, especially significantly (p = 0.017) in the cases of Dukes B stage (85-88% vs 69.2% in survival rates of 8 year). In rectal cancer, systemic intravenous administration of MMC 4 mg, two times a week for immediately postoperative three weeks, combined with postoperatively prolonged oral administration of Tegaful 800 mg/day more than three months was also significantly effective, especially in the cases of Dukes C stage (52.3% vs 40% in survival rates of 8 year). However, the analysis of recurrence did not prove that the intra-operative local intra vessel administration of MMC 10 mg was useful for the prevention of liver metastasis in colon cancer or pelvic recurrence in rectal cancer respectively.