Palliative treatment with low-dose continuous infusion 5-fluorouracil in recurrent and/or metastatic undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma type

✍ Scribed by Abderrahim Fandi; Abdelkrim Taamma; Nacer Azli; Mounir Bachouchi; Bashar Yanes; Jean Pierre Armand; Esteban Cvitkovic

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 59 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1043-3074
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0347(199701)19:1<41::aid-hed8>3.0.co;2-v

✦ Synopsis

Background:

Low-dose protracted continuous infusion (ci) 5-fluorouracil (5-fu), as proposed by lokich et al, has been reported to be active and well tolerated in colorectal and breast cancers. we initiated a phase ii trial with ci 5-fu in heavily pretreated undifferentiated carcinoma of the nasopharyngeal type (ucnt) patients in february 1989.

Methods:

Twenty-one ucnt patients with recurrent and/or metastatic disease were treated with ci 5-fu (300 mg/m2) for 6 consecutive weeks. treatment was to be continued until disease progression.

Results:

Toxicity was mild. diarrhea and mucositis (who grade 2 or greater) were seen in 4 (20%) and 6 patients (30%), respectively. myelosuppression was infrequent, with only one patient with bone marrow invasion, experiencing grade 3 leukopenia. two complete and 3 partial responses were obtained in 20 evaluable patients (orr:25%). the median time to progression was 4 months (range 2-14); the median survival for the whole population was 10 months (avg 2-41).

Conclusion:

This appears to be a useful palliative treatment for heavily pretreated ucnt patients.