[Chemotherapy for digestive carcinomas. Results of a phase II clinical trial (author's transl)].

A so-called "phase II" clinical trial was carried out in 89 patients with digestive carcinomas who were treated either by chemotherapy alone or by a combination of surgery and chemotherapy. Thirty-five patients with inoperable tumours received chemotherapy alone without any noticeable improvement. Thirty-two patients had tumours which were operable but with inoperable extension. Palliative chemotherapy, given after surgery to reduce the size of the tumour, resulted in a prolongation of survival. Twenty-two patients with operable tumours without inoperable extension benefited from routine adjuvant chemotherapy.