Chemotherapy with continuous infusion of 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin in a monthly schedule is one of the most com mon regimens in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of a dose dense administration of this regimen in this patient population. Sixty-six consecutive patients with previously untreated histologically confirmed unresectable or metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma were treated with a 2 - hour infusion of cisplatin 100 mg/m 2 followed by continuous infusion of 5-fluorouracil 1000 mg/m 2 /day for 5 days, every 21 days. The most common grade ≥3 toxicities were fatigue (42%), nausea/vomiting (30%) an d leucopenia (12%). Four patients (6%) died from treatment-related toxicity. The response rate was 35%, the median progression-free survival was 4.3 months and the median survival was 5.9 months. In light of these results, the dose-dense approach seems to offer little, if any, benefit compared with the standard regimens.
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