[Chemotherapy of gastrointestinal cancer in elderly patients--evaluation of combination therapy with mitomycin C and 5-fluorouracil].

Sixty-three elderly patients with gastrointestinal cancer were treated with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or tegafur alone, and a combination of mitomycin C (MMC) and 5-FU. Judged by Koyama-Saito's criteria, the combination treatment was superior to single drug therapy. The response was somewhat correlated with survival in the combination regimen although it produced more gastrointestinal and myelotoxicities than the single drug. Our results suggest that the combination of MMC and 5-FU is useful in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers in the elderly.