Thymidylate synthase inhibition by an oral regimen consisting of tegafur-uracil (UFT) and low-dose leucovorin for patients with gastric cancer.
PURPOSE: 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) remains a standard therapy for patients with advanced gastric cancer. There has been no study using an oral regimen with a combination of tegafur, a masked compound of 5-FU, and leucovorin in gastric cancer. The purpose of this study was to determine whether orally administered low-dose leucovorin enhances thymidylate synthase ( TS) inhibition when added to tegafur-uracil (UFT) in patients with gastric cancer. METHODS: A group of 26 patients with resectable gastric cancer were assigned to one of two regimens: UFT alone or UFT plus leucovorin. UFT, equivalent to 400 mg/day tegafur, with or without 30 mg/day leucovorin, was administered orally in divided daily doses every 12 h for 3 consecutive days prior to surgery. Tumor specimens were taken immediately following gastrectomy, and the TS inhibition rate (TSIR) was determined using a ligand-binding assay. RESULTS: The TSIR was significantly higher in the UFT plus leucovorin group than in the UFT alone group (P < 0.01). The TSIR in the patients treated with UFT alone ranged between 14% and 50%, while six of the eight patients treated with UFT plus leucovorin had a TSIR of 55% or higher. The remaining two patients in the group treated with UFT plus leucovorin, with a TSIR of 31% and 44%, had undifferentiated tumors. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that orally administered low-dose leucovorin can add to the efficacy of UFT in patients with gastric cancer, and provide preliminary data for a randomized clinical trial.[1]References
- Thymidylate synthase inhibition by an oral regimen consisting of tegafur-uracil (UFT) and low-dose leucovorin for patients with gastric cancer. Ichikura, T., Tomimatsu, S., Okusa, Y., Yahara, T., Uefuji, K., Tamakuma, S. Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol. (1996) [Pubmed]
Annotations and hyperlinks in this abstract are from individual authors of WikiGenes or automatically generated by the WikiGenes Data Mining Engine. The abstract is from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.About WikiGenesOpen Access LicencePrivacy PolicyTerms of Useapsburg









