Evaluation of 5-Fluorouracil in the Treatment of Cancer

Abstract

5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) was used in 60 patients with advanced cancer classified as originating in 21 different sites. One case of Letterer-Siwe disease was treated. In 12 patients with advanced carcinoma, objective regression of tumor growth was noted (19.6%). The longest remissions occurred in cancer of the breast and uterus. Thirty-one patients (50.8%) had some degree of subjective relief. Toxicity was severe in most cases and fatal in 11 (18.0%), though the fatalities occurred usually in markedly debilitated patients with extensive cancer. The antineoplastic effect of this drug is of interest because it will produce remissions after other methods of treatment have failed. Perhaps related drugs will prove less toxic and more effective.