Limited Efficacy of Cisplatin, UFT and Hydroxyurea Treatment in a Retrospective Evaluation of Patients with Metastatic Gastric Cancer

Background: Most gastric cancer cases are diagnosed at advanced stage and the prognosis is therefore poor. Combination chemotherapy regimens like FAM, FAMTX, ECF, ELF are recommended in advanced gastric cancer. Of particular interest is the HLFP protocol (hydroxyurea, leucovorin, 5-FU, cisplatin) which is reported to give good response rates. In the present study we evaluated the efficacy of oral UFT instead of 5-FU and leucovorin. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the efficacy of cisplatin, UFT, and hydroxyurea in combination in 14 patients with metastatic gastric cancer. Patients with brain metastasis were excluded. The doses of agents were: oral hydroxyurea 1.5 g/day on days 1-3; cisplatin 80 mg/m2 infusion on day 1 for two hours; and UFT capsule 400 mg/day dose on days 1 to 14. Results: The results were progressive disease in 8 (57%) patients, stable disease in 2 (17%) patients and partial response in 1 (7%) patient. The overall survival was 7.9 months (3-15), progression free survival was 3.4 (1-7) months. Conclusions: Due to high toxicity and low response rates, cisplatin, UFT and hydroxyurea combination demonstrated limited activity against gastric cancer and was not found to be effective for the treatment of advanced gastric cancer.