Gemcitabine/5-FU/Leucovorin for the treatment of pancreatic carcinoma

The eflicacy and toxicity of a chemotherapy protocol consisting of gemcitabine, 5-fu and leucovorin in patients with different stages of pancreatic cancer was evaluated.methods: fifty-one chemo-naive patients with different stages of pancreatic cancer were treated with a chemotherapy protocol consisting of gemcitabine 1000 mg/m2 on the first day, 5-fu 450 mg/m2 and leucovorin 100 mg/m2 on days 1-3. the treatment was repeated every 2 weeks. fourteen of our patients (male:female 9:5) received this protocol as their adjuvant chemotherapy after surgical treatment. thirty-seven other patients with advanced pancreatic cancer (male:female 27:10) (67.6% stage ivb) were enrolied.results: with a mean time foliow-up of 25 months in the adjuvant group, aii the patients were alive and disease free. for the others, in an intention-to-treat analysis, seven (18.9%) partial responses were objectively achieved (95%ci: 8.33 to 29). fourteen (37.8%) patients had stable disease and 16 (43.2%) experienced progressive disease. the median response time was 3 months (ranged 1.5- 7.0). overali mean survival time was 6.5 months (ranged1.0-15.5). the response to chemotherapy revealed no significant difference in two genders (p=0.971). no cases of grade iii/iv toxicities were seen in any of our patients.conclusion: the combination of gemcitabine with 5-fu and leucovorin is an active and weli-tolerated regimen in patients with ali stages of pancreatic cancer, meriting further evaluation in prospective randomized studies. this combination may be considered a valuable altemative to gemcitabine alone