Efficacy and Tolerability of Weekly Docetaxel, Cisplatin, and 5-Fluorouracil for Locally Advanced or Metastatic Gastric Cancer Patients with ECOG Performance Scores of 1 and 2

Background: Docetaxel, cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil (DCF) given every three weeks is an effective, but palliativeregimen and significantly toxic especially in patients who have a low performance score. Here, we aimed to evaluatethe efficacy and tolerability of a weekly formulation of DCF in locally advanced and metastatic gastric cancerpatients. Materials and
Methods: 64 gastric cancer patients (13 locally advanced and 51 metastatic) whose ECOG(Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group) performance status (PS) was 1-2 and who were treated with at least twocycles of weekly DCF protocol as first-line treatment were included retrospectively. The weekly DCF protocolincluded 25mg/m2 docetaxel, 25mg/m2 cisplatin, and 24 hours infusion of 750mg/m2 5-fluorouracil, repeated everyweek. Disease and patient characteristics, prognostic factors, treatment response, grade 3-4 toxicity related totreatment, progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated.
Results: Of the patients, 41were male and 23 were female; the median age was 63 (29-82) years. Forty-one patients were ECOG-1 and 23were ECOG-2. Of the total, 81.2% received at least three cycles of chemotherapy. Partial response was observedin 28.1% and stabilization in 29.7%. Overall, the disease was controlled in 57.8% whereas progression was notedin 42.2%. The median time to progression was 4 months (95%CI, 2.8-5.2 months) and median overall survivalwas 12 months (95%CI, 9.2-14.8 months). The evaluation of patients for grade 3-4 toxicity revealed that 10.9%had anemia, 7.8% had thrombocytopenia and 10.9% had neutropenia. Non-hematologic toxicity included renaltoxicity (7.8%) and thrombosis (1.6%).
Conclusions: In patients with locally advanced or metastatic gastriccancer who were not candidates for DCF administered every-3-weeks, a weekly formulation of DCF demonstratedmodest activity with minimal hematologic toxicity, suggesting that weekly DCF is a reasonable treatment optionfor such patients.