Phase II study of oxaliplatin, UFT, and leucovorin in patients with metastatic gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND

The present study evaluated the efficacy and safety of oxaliplatin, UFT, and leucovorin in metastatic gastric cancer.

METHODS

Patients received intravenous oxaliplatin 130 mg/m(2) on day 1, followed by oral UFT capsules (350 mg/m(2) per day) and leucovorin tablets (90 mg/day), every 8 h, for 14 days, in a 3-week cycle.

RESULTS

Twenty-three patients (61% with > or = 2 metastatic sites), median age of 60 years (range, 39-69 years) were entered. Based on intention-to-treat analysis, one complete response and seven partial responses were found, resulting in an overall response rate (RR) of 35% (95% confidence interval [CI], 16-54), a median time to progression of 4 months (95% CI, 0.5-7.5), and a median overall survival (OS) of 8 months (95% CI, 4.5-11.5). The 1-year survival rate was 26%. Three patients did not complete the first course of 2 weeks; 1 died suddenly on day 16 with fatal lung embolism; 1 had rapid progressive disease and 1 experienced gastric hemorrhage on day 15 - both these patients withdrew. In the 20 patients assessable for toxicity no grade 4 toxicity occurred, grade 3 toxicity consisted of anemia in 1, diarrhea in 2, and neurotoxicity in 3 patients. No hand-foot syndrome (HFS) occurred.

CONCLUSION

Oxaliplatin is an effective drug in gastric cancer, but, as previously reported, its feasibility in combination with capecitabine is hampered due to combined hand-foot-based toxicity. The present phase II study of a combination of oxaliplatin with UFT and leucovorin appears to have efficacy and tolerability comparable to two other drug regimens used in gastric cancer, without the HFS problem.