ABSTRACT
Background: Gastric cancer is the second common disease among types of cancer, followed by lung cancer for male and breast cancer for female. The selection of appropriate regimens for illness and economic conditions of patients is always a difficult problem for clinicians. Objectives: To assess preliminary results of chemotherapy in treatment of gastric cancer in Hai Phong. Subjects and method: A longitudinal, cross-section study was conducted on 57 patients with gastric cancer (35 male, 21 female), treated in Viet Tiep hospital from January, 2002 to June, 2006. All of them were in stage of Dukes C, treated postoperative supported chemotherapy. Results: Side effects were common seen as vomit, nausea and diarrhea. They were often mild and disappeared after stopping medication. 30/57 patients responded to treatment. 21 patients were treated with regimen 5FU, however, amount of treatment cycles was very scattered and treatment effect was unclear. 36 patients were treated with multi-chemical regimens as FUFA, FAM and ELF. Their response to treatment was more clearly than regimen 5FU. During treatment, there were 6 patients who had not completely responded to treatment. In which, 4 patients developed more seriously: metastasis to liver, ovary, bone and lung. 2 patients had died. Conclusion: Regimen 5FU had a little toxicity. Regimen FUFA was more effective. The role of chemotherapy in supported treatment was unclear. Chemotherapy could be applied to patients with early stage of Dukes B.