Docetaxel, Cisplatin, 5-FU Combination Chemotherapy as a First-Line Treatment in Patients with Advanced Gastric Cancer / 대한내과학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND/AIMS: This study investigated the efficacy and safety of docetaxel/cisplatin/5-fluorouracil (DCF) combination chemotherapy as a first-line treatment in patients with advanced gastric cancer. METHODS: The study enrolled 48 patients diagnosed with unresectable pathologically proven gastric cancer who received DCF combination chemotherapy between April 2006 and August 2009. The dose administered was docetaxel 75 mg/m2 for 1 h and cisplatin 75 mg/m2 for 90 min on day 2, and 5-FU 750 mg/m2 for 24 h on days 1-5, every 3 weeks. The response was assessed every three cycles. The toxicity was evaluated for every chemotherapy course according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) toxicity criteria ver. 2.0. RESULTS: The median age of the patients was 58 years (range 31-78 years). The median overall survival was 11.5 months (2.3-28.2 months) and the median time to progression was 5.5 months (0.3-18.9 months). No complete remission occurred. Of the patients, 56% achieved a partial response, 21% stable disease, and 10% progressive disease. The overall response rate was 56%. During a total 292 cycles, anemia worse than NCI toxicity grade 3 occurred in 2%, leukopenia in 33.1%, neutropenia in 67.1%, and thrombocytopenia in 4.4%. Neutropenic fever occurred in 33 cycles (11.3%), dose reduction due to side effects in 165 cycles (56.5%), and a regimen change due to side effect in five cycles (1.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Combination chemotherapy with docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5-FU is efficacious, but has relatively high toxicity. A DCF protocol that maximizes its efficiency, while minimizing toxicity, would be more useful as a first-line treatment in patients with advanced gastric cancer.