Adjuvant chemotherapy with oral tegaful and uracil for maxillary sinus carcinoma

We have applied tegaful and uracil (UFT) treatment as adjuvant chemotherapy to patients after the completion of primary therapy. UFT was given per os at a dose of 300 or 400 mg/day for more than 1 year. A retrospective study was conducted on 15 patients, assessed as the UFT-treated group, and 24 patients assessed as the UFT-nontreated group. The 5-year survival rate in patients treated or not treated with UFT was 76.6 and 22.6%, respectively. Among those who underwent surgery in combination with other therapy, the 5-year survival rate was 74.1% with UFT and 27.3% without UFT. In patients receiving chemotherapy plus radiotherapy alone, the 5-year survival rate was 80.0% with UFT and 19.2% without UFT. In 23 patients with proven effects of neoadjuvant chemotherapy comprising 18 PR cases and 5 CR cases, a comparison was made between 10 patients treated with UFT and 13 patients not treated with UFT. As a result, the 5-year survival was 76.2 and 17.9%, respectively. In the patients with T3 disease, who occupied the majority, the 5-year survival rate was 71.4 and 23.8%, respectively. Adjuvant chemotherapy with UFT tends to show a substantial significant difference particularly in patients who were successfully treated with radiotherapy plus chemotherapy as the primary treatment. UFT was clearly shown to have a statistically significant effect, despite a small population. The findings of the present investigation point to the value of conducting further study to ascertain the effect of UFT by a randomized trial in a larger population.