Gastric cancer‐survival at the pennsylvania hospital with and without adjuvant chemotherapy

From 1964 to 1974, 122 patients were treated for gastric cancer; none of these patients received chemotherapy; 13 of this group were lost to follow‐up. In 34 patients, the disease was too far advanced for surgical resection. Their survival ranged from 0.1 month to 7.5 months with a median survival of 1.1 months. Seventy‐four patients were resected for cure; 60 patients underwent a subtotal gastrectomy. Survival ranged from 0 to 72 months with a median of eight months. Fourteen patients had total gastrectomies; survival ranged from 0.1 to 72 months with a median of 5.5 months. Only six of the resected patients had negative lymph nodes; their survival ranged from four to 36 months. In this series there were 11 operative deaths and only seven patients survived five years. Thirty‐one patients who had resections were treated with adjuvant chemotherapy consisting of 0.5 g 5‐fluorouracil.(5‐FU) IV on days 1, 8, 15, etc, and hydroxyurea (HU), 80 mg/kg per os (p.o.), on days 4, 11, 18, etc. This group has a range of survival from three to 164 months and a median survival of 25 months. Fifteen consecutive patients with nonresectable gastric cancer were treated with HU‐FU with a survival of one to 30 months and a median survival of eight months. In patients with measurable disease, objective regression was clearly demonstrated.