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Competing Interests: Forschungsarbeiten im Labor von Prof. Tacke wurden durch die Firmen Gilead, BMS, Allergan und Inventiva gefördert. Raphael Mohr gibt an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht.

The possible effectiveness of methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil and adriamycin was tested in a phase I/II study of patients with metastasising gastric carcinoma. complete of partial remission occurred in 19 of 30 patients (approximately 63%). Two of 30 patients had complete remission. Median survival time of patients with remission cannot as yet be determined: about 68% are still alive after 17 months. Median survival time of patients with advanced tumour was only five months. The difference in survival curve is statistically significant (P less than 0.05). The study is continuing.

The present retrospective study concerns two sub-groups of patients having normal serum creatinine levels, adequate 24-hour urine volumes and no pathological changes in the serum or urine osmolarity. There are differences in the initial values of the serum urea nitrogen, the higher (with almost 60 mg%) being already in the azotemia range. Both sub-groups received 100 g of an amino acid mixture adapted to requirements in addition to comparable parenteral nutrition. This did not lead to non-physiological changes in urea nitrogen or any of the other parameters measured in either of the groups. The findings obtained allow the following conclusions to be drawn: Parenteral administration of a quantity of essential and non-essential amino acids adapted to requirements did not bring about a rise in urea nitrogen in either the patients with normal or raised urea nitrogen values. Hence there are not grounds for assuming that in the post-operative or post-traumatic phase the use of a mixture of essential amino acids is necessary to reduce potentially occurring azotemia.