[The usefulness of pre- and immediately postoperative chemotherapy in colorectal cancer]

In order to investigate the usefulness of pre- and immediately postoperative chemotherapy in colorectal cancer, 35 patients that underwent curative resection from April 1988 to March 1990 for the tumors having serosal (a2, s) or subserosal (a1, ss) invasion were divided into three groups (A, B and C) according to the treatment modality with anticancer drugs. In group A (9 cases), 400 mg of UFT was given orally for 7 days preoperatively; on the day of operation bolus 20 mg of MMC and the day after operation bolus 10 mg of MMC were given intravenously. After that, 800 mg of FT was infused intravenously for 2 weeks followed by daily oral administration of 400 mg of UFT. In group B (12 cases), bolus 20 mg of MMC on the day of surgery and bolus 10 mg the day after surgery were given by vein. Moreover, 400 mg of UFT was orally administered daily from 2 weeks after surgery. In group C (14 cases), 400 mg of UFT alone was given daily orally from 2 weeks after surgery. The three-year survival rates of group A, B and C were 100%, 91.7%, and 92.9%, respectively. The recurrence rates in the three groups were 0%, 16.7%, and 28.6%, respectively. Although statistical significance was not observed, the prognosis of group A seemed to be favorable. No recurrence was observed in group A, and the recurrences in group B and C were entirely hepatic metastasis. Accordingly, preoperative chemotherapy with immediately postoperative chemotherapy seems to be effective in the prevention of hematogenous spread in colorectal cancer.