Late results of postoperative long term cancer chemotherapy for advanced carcinoma of the stomach

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Abstract
Postoperative long term cancer chemotherapy (PLCC) with the combination of Mitomycin-C, FT-207*, a furanyl analog of 5-fluorouracil, and PSK**, an immunopotentiator, was prescribed for patients with advanced gastric cancer. Five year survival rates for all stage III and stage IV patients were 52.8 and 19.3 per cent in the PLCC group. The rates were 26.7 and 2.2 per cent in the control groups (p<0.05). In curative cases of stage IV, the 5-year survival rate was 50.0% in the PLCC group while the rate was 11.1% in the controls. Mean survival time of patients with peritoneal dissemination or hepatic metastases was 12.8 and 10.9 months, respectively, for the PLCC group, in contrast to the lower 6.4 and 4.3 months for the controls. Thus, the 5-year survival rate of advanced gastric cancer patients in stage III and stage IV was markedly improved when these patients were treated with the protocol. Our findings clearly show that adjuvant chemotherapy should be administered for a long period postoperatively in order to achieve a significant improvement in patients with gastric cancer.