[Uptake of anticancer drugs by target organs and the usefulness of adjuvant chemotherapy].

Forty-one patients with advanced gastric cancer underwent gastrectomy, and the correlation between tissue uptake of the adjuvant drug and the prognosis were studied. The patients were preoperatively administered Tegafur and samples of tissue were obtained intraoperatively. 5-FU levels in the tumor and lymphnodes were measured by gas chromato-mass fragmentography (GCMF). The patients measured for 5-FU tissue uptake were given more than 60 g of tegafur as postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy, and divided into two groups; one in which the 5-FU uptake by tumor tissue and lymphnode was over 0.05 microgram/g and the other lower than 0.05 microgram/g. In both groups there were no significant differences in background factors. Each survival rate was calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method, and the generalized Wilcoxon method was used for statistical analysis. There was no statistically significant correlation between 5-FU uptake by the tumor and the prognosis, but the 5-year survival rate in the group with over 0.05 microgram/g uptake by lymphnodes was statistically significant (p = 0.018).