TY - JOUR T1 - Significance of Thymidine Phosphorylase in Metronomic Chemotherapy using CPT-11 and Doxifluridine for Advanced Colorectal Carcinoma JF - Anticancer Research JO - Anticancer Res SP - 2605 LP - 2611 VL - 27 IS - 4C AU - YUTAKA OGATA AU - TERUO SASATOMI AU - SHINJIRO MORI AU - KEIKO MATONO AU - NOBUYA ISHIBASHI AU - YOSHITO AKAGI AU - TAKANARU FUKUSHIMA AU - HIDETSUGU MURAKAMI AU - MASATAKA USHIJIMA AU - KAZUO SHIROUZU Y1 - 2007/07/01 UR - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/27/4C/2605.abstract N2 - Background: A phase II study was designed to evaluate the efficacy, safety and predictors for response of metronomic chemotherapy using weekly low-dosage CPT-11 and doxifluridine (5′-DFUR) in 45 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Patients and Methods: Forty mg/m2 of CPT-11 was administered for 3 consecutive weeks in a 4-week treatment cycle, with 5′-DFUR (800 mg/day) given orally. Results: One or more adverse effects were seen in 42 patients. However, most of these were mild at grade 1 or 2, including only leucopenia in 2, neutropenia in 1, diarrhea in 1 and nausea in 1 as grade 3. The objective response rate was 36% with a median overall survival of 452 days. The response rate in patients with a high expression of thymidine phosphorylase (dThdPase) in tumor cells (47%) was higher (p=0.092) than that (19%) in patients with a low expression. Conclusion: The efficacy of metronomic chemotherapy using low-dosage weekly CPT-11 and 5′-DFUR is worthy of further clinical study, especially in patients with a high expression of dThdPase in primary tumor cells. ER -