[Adjuvant chemotherapy for gastric cancer--relation between long-term administration of FT-207 and prognosis]

The effect of adjuvant chemotherapy with FT-207 on survival rates in gastric cancer patients was evaluated. Patients who underwent curative gastrectomy in our Department were classified into the four groups: (A) short-term chemotherapy; total doses of 5 g 5-fluorouracil, or 1/2 MF (F') C alone (futraful 400mg/day, or 5-fluorouracil 250 mg/day for 3 weeks, mitomycin C 2 mg and cytosine arabinoside 20 mg twice a week for 3 weeks; (B) intermediate term chemotherapy; 1/2 MF (F') C followed by the oral administration of futraful 0.6g/day for less than 6 months; (C) long-term chemotherapy; 1/2 MF (F') C followed by futraful 10.6g/day longer than 6 months (D) control; no chemotherapy No significant difference back ground factors among four groups was found. Patients who recurred during the administration of drugs were excluded from this study. The survival rate of Group (C) in stage III was significantly higher than that of Group (A), (B) and (D) (generalized Wilcoxon test, p less than 0.03). There was no difference between (B) and (D). The survival rate of Group (A) was lower than Group (D). The effectiveness of chemo- therapy was not observed in patients with stage I and II. Survival rates of patients receiving futraful longer than 3 months continuously were significantly higher compared to patients who had to discontinue the drugs due to side effects. These results suggested that the adjuvant chemotherapy with futraful lasting more than 6 months prolonged the survival time, but short-term chemotherapy decreased the survival rate when compared with no chemotherapy group.