Treatment of patients with metastatic gastric-cancer by continuous-infusion of 5-Fluorouracil, Cisplatin and Etoposide

The therapeutic effectiveness of continuous infusion of 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin, and etoposide (FEP) for treatment of metastatic gastric cancer was examined. Studies were made on 17 patients with gastric cancer with distant metastases. 5-fluorouracil (300 mg/m(2)/day) and cisplatin (80 mg/m(2)/day) were administered by continuous intravenous infusion for 120 and 24 hours, respectively; etoposide (60 mg/m(2)/day) was injected intravenously over a 2 hour period on days 2, 3 and 4. These chemotherapy treatments were repeated every 28 days. Partial, but not complete, remission was seen in four patients (24%). The treatment increased the survival times of patients with differentiated or Borrmann 2 or 3 type cancer, but not significantly. In many cases the treatment caused myelosuppression, but side effects were usually mild or moderate. It is concluded that infusion of 5-fluorouracil, etoposide and cisplatin is effective and well tolerated.