[Postoperative adjuvant immunochemotherapy using Lentinan for advanced gastric carcinoma patients with metastasis in the regional lymph nodes and serosal invasion].

Six patients with gastric cancer, stage IIIA to IV, received intraabdominal cisplatin (CDDP) at laporotomy. This was followed by postoperative intravenous infusion of mitomycin C (MMC), CDDP or fluorouracil (5-FU). When these patients recovered to the extent that permitted oral medication, an immunochemotherapeutic regimen containing either oral UFT (uracil and tegafur) or 5'-deoxy-5-fluorouridine (5'-DFUR), plus intravenous Lentinan (LNT) was administered for a period ranging from one and a half to two years. This postoperative immunochemotherapy was successful in all 6 patients. No relapse has been observed in any of them for at least 4 years. These findings indicate that the chemotherapeutic strategy of administering intraabdominal CDDP immediately after surgery, followed by postoperative immunochemotherapy with pyrimidine-fluoride products plus Lentinan on an outpatient basis may be useful in the treatment of T3 or T4 gastric carcinoma with metastasis in the regional lymph nodes.