Combined 5-fluorouracil, adriamycin and mitomycin C in the management of adenocarcinoma metastasizing to the liver from an unknown primary site.

A combination of 5-fluorouracil, adriamycin and mitomycin was used to treat patients with adenocarcinoma metastasizing only to the liver from an unknown primary site. Of the 29 evaluable patients, only three (10.3%) achieved short partial remission for 6-12 weeks and two (6.9%) patients were stabilized for 4 weeks. The partial responders demonstrated a short survival time of 10-22 weeks and the median survival of non-responders was 8 weeks, which was not significantly different from that of responders. It is concluded that, although treatment of patients with metastatic adenocarcinoma of unknown primary site should be individualized, in general systemic chemotherapy for patients presenting with liver metastases is probably not justified.