ABSTRACT
We measured TS and DPD activities in 40 patients with colorectal cancer who had undergone surgical reduction in our department between May 1997 and April 1998, including 26 patients with preoperative UFT (450 mg/body/day) chemotherapy for 2 weeks, and evaluated the clinical significance of TS and DPD activities as predictive factors of UFT sensitivity. TS activity was collated with histological type from a clinical pathological examination (p = 0.0103). Also, the tendency for TS activity to become high with the stage was observed. According to the evaluation of pathological response, histological effectiveness greater than grade 2 was noted in 7.7%. The apoptosis index (AI) in tumors with preoperative UFT chemotherapy was higher than those without such treatment, which showed a higher correlation with DPD activity of tumor tissue than TS activity (p = 0.0465). Recurrence was seen in 7 cases (lung metastasis: 2, liver metastasis: 4, and local recurrence: 1) in the preoperative chemotherapy group. TS activity was high in all patients with recurrence. TS showed significantly high activity in patients with recurrence compared with the non-recurrence (p = 0.0034) patients. Therefore, these results suggested that activity of both TS and DPD was a key factor for anti-tumor effectiveness of UFT. In particular, TS activity was an important predictive factor for effectiveness of UFT in recurrences.
Subject(s)
Antineoplastic Agents/therapeutic use , Colorectal Neoplasms/drug therapy , Colorectal Neoplasms/enzymology , Dihydrouracil Dehydrogenase (NADP)/metabolism , Tegafur/therapeutic use , Thymidylate Synthase/metabolism , Uracil/therapeutic use , Adenocarcinoma/drug therapy , Adenocarcinoma/enzymology , Adenocarcinoma/pathology , Aged , Apoptosis , Chemotherapy, Adjuvant , Colorectal Neoplasms/pathology , Drug Combinations , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Neoplasm StagingABSTRACT
We report a case in which low-dose CPT-11 chemotherapy was effective for metastatic liver tumor of sigmoid colon cancer. A 49-year-old male with metastatic liver tumor, who had undergone sigmoidectomy with D2 lymphadenectomy, was treated by low-dose CPT-11 chemotherapy (CPT-11 30 mg/m2 x 3 days, every 2 weeks). After 7 courses of this chemotherapy, CT and ultrasound examinations showed a reduction of tumor size in the liver. This chemotherapy also showed no high grade toxicities. Therefore, low-dose CPT-11 chemotherapy seems to be effective for metastatic colorectal cancer, and safe in view of toxicities.
