Objective: To evaluate the toxicity and efficacy of capecitabine-based chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer.
Methods: 104 patients with advanced gastric cancers were treated with capecitabine-based chemotherapy regimens from Sept. 2001 to May 2007. Group 1 was treated by capecitabine 1000 mg/m(2) orally twice daily on D1-14, repeated every 3 weeks;group 2 by capecitabine as that of group 1, and combined with paclitaxel 175 mg/m(2) intravenous infusion on D1 (or 80 - 90 mg/m(2) on D1, D8), or docetaxel 65 - 75 mg/m(2) on D1, repeated every 3 weeks; group 3 by capecitabine as that of group 1, combined with cisplatin 15 - 20 mg/m(2) intravenous infusion for 2 h on D1-5, or oxaliplatin 130 mg/m(2) for 2 h on D1, repeated every 3 weeks. The median cycles of treatment were 3 cycles.
Results: The overall response rate was 20.6%. The median overall survival and the median time to progression were 8.5 months and 5.2 months, respectively. For the first-line chemotherapy, ORR was 40.0%, disease control rate was 76.7%; the median overall survival in all patients and in the patients with first-line chemotherapy of capecitabine plus paclitaxel were 10.9 months and 12.8 months, respectively. The adverse events in capecitabine alone group were the least among all the groups.
Conclusion: The capecitabine-based chemotherapy was effective and tolerable. The patients with KPS < 80 may choose capecitabine alone for the chemotherapy. The regimen of capecitabine combined with paclitaxel was more effective than other regimens. However, further investigation to improve it is still required.