Abstract

OBJECTIVE

Cytotoxic chemotherapy is the basic treatment for locally advanced and metastatic esophageal cancer. We evaluated the benefits and side effects of the first-line short-term infusional 5- Fluorouracil (5-FU) and cisplatin combination regimen in patients with locally advanced and metastatic esophageal squamous cell cancer.

METHODS

We retrospectively reviwed the untreated locally advanced or metastatic squamous cell esophageal cancer patients treated with short-term infusional 5-FU and cisplatin combination between December 2006 and july 2013. Chemotherapy regimen was administered as; cisplatin 75 mg/m2 on day 1 (1-3-h infusion), ca-leucovorin 60 mg/m2 d1-2 and 5-FU 500 mg/m2 d1-2 (15-min infusion) every 14 days.

RESULTS

There were 14 (51.9%) male and 13 (48.1%) female patients. The median age was 57 (range, 39-80) years. Twenty patients had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 to 1 (77%), while the rest had PS of 2 (23%). At first diagnosis, 10 patients had distant metastases and 17 patients had localized disease. In total, 27 patients were treated with a median of four cycles. The overall response rate was 44.4% (8 partial responses, 4 complete responses) and 7 patients (25.9%) had stable disease. The disease control rate was 70.3%. Median progression free survival was 6.2 (95% CI: 5.13 7.28) months and median overall survival was 11.1 (95% CI: 7.77-14.5) months. Among the patients, 40.7% of them had grade 3-4 neutropenia, 11.1% of those patients had grade 3-4 thrombocytopenia.

CONCLUSION

Short-term infusional 5-FU and cisplatin combination regimen can be considered as an alternative treatment to an infusion regimen in which a catheter is necessary for the drug infusion.