[Clinical effect of HCFU therapy of head and neck cancer]

HCFU for oral use has a higher therapeutic ratio and a broader antitumor spectrum in murine tumors than other fluorinated pyrimidines. In the present study, HCFU was administered orally to 53 evaluable patients at a standard daily dose of 600 mg. The overall response rate was 22.6% with 6 complete responses and 6 partial responses. Adverse effects such as pollakisuria, anorexia, hot sensation, general fatigue, CNS and so on, were observed in 36.6% of patients. We conclude that HCFU therapy is expected to be useful for multidisciplinary treatment because of the above findings which suggest this drug is an effective chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of head and neck cancer.