Continuous-infusion 5-fluorouracil combined with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide: Feasibility study

✍ Scribed by Saphner, Thomas ;Tormey, Douglass C. ;Carey, Patrick

• Book ID: 102521640
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 378 KB
• Volume: 20
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0098-1532
• DOI: 10.1002/mpo.2950200410

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Previous studies have demonstrated continuous‐infusion 5‐fluorouracil (Cl 5‐FU) to be an active single‐agent treatment for breast cancer without significant myelotoxicity. These qualities made Cl 5‐FU an attractive agent for combination with other effective but myelosuppressive agents. In this study we attempted to determine the maximal doses of Cl 5‐FU that could be added to a combination of agents known to be dose limited by myelotoxicity, doxorubicin 50 mg/m^2^ day 2 and cyclophosphamide 150 mg/m^2^ days 3–12 of a 28‐day cycle. Patients who received doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide alone developed significant myelotoxicity but did not develop stomatitis. The addition of 5–7 days of Cl 5‐FU at 200–300 mg/m^2^ was associated more closely with increased stomatitis (P = .11) than with increased granulocytopenia (P = .57). The stomatitis observed for low doses of Cl 5‐FU given with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide would not have been expected for these low doses of Cl 5‐FU given as a single agent. We conclude that the addition of Cl 5‐FU to myelotoxic doses of doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide is not a promising therapeutic strategy for significantly increasing the effectiveness of this combination of agents. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.