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In collaboration with 428 institutions nation-wide, comparative studies on the optimal daily dosage of UFT were carried out for non-curative resection cases of colorectal cancer for two years from January 1984 to December 1985. The administration method employed was as follows. Group C received 12 mg/m2 of MMC on the day of operation, followed by 6 mg/m2 every 2 months 6 times, and from the 2nd week after the operation 600 mg/body of UFT was continuously administered every day for 1 year. Group D received 400 mg/body of UFT every day and the same amount of MMC as Group C. Analysis was made of 556 evaluable cases. There was no difference in the survival rate between the two groups. With respect to the dosage per body weight (kg), 8-12 mg/kg of UFT produced good prognoses and less side effects than the group which received more than 12 mg/kg. It seems necessary to administer UFT at its optimal dosage for colorectal cancers.

Beginning in January 1984, in collaboration with 357 institutions nationwide, comparative studies on curative resection cases of colorectal cancer and a control group were conducted for 2 years. The following method of administration was employed; Group A received 12 mg/m2 of MMC on the day of operation, followed by 6 mg/m2 every 2 months 6 times. From the 2nd week after the operation, 800 mg/body/day of Futraful was administered for one year. Group B received no treatment. Altogether 2786 cases were collected and, excluding ineligible cases, 2477 evaluable cases were analyzed. There was no difference in either survival rate or disease free rate, but after the bias of background factors was corrected by the hazard model, the disease free rate was better with Group A, and there was a significant difference with the rectum. According to the Dukes classification, in the Dukes C cases with the rectum Group A had higher rate of survival, disease free rate and lower rate of metastasis to the liver and local recurrence of cancer.

A randomized controlled study was carried out by the envelope method with 491 institutions in participation across the country in order to find an optimal surgical adjuvant chemotherapy for curatively resected colorectal cancer. The schedules for drug administration were different in four districts: ACNU + Futraful (FT) group and FT alone group in the Hokkaido-Shikoku district; the same schedule groups plus untreated group in the Chubu-Kinki district; MMC+FT group, FT alone group in the Tohoku-Kanto district; and ADM+FT group and FT alone group in the Chugoku-Kyushu district. The numbers of patients admitted to this study were 2,450 cases with colon cancer and 2,456 cases met the evaluation criteria of this study. The 5-year survival rate on the whole did not differ from combination therapy to single drug therapy in either colon cancer or rectal cancer, but in Dukes C rectal cancer the five-year survival rate tended to be higher with the combination therapies. In n2 (+) or a2(s) rectal cancer in particular, combination therapies with MMC and FT and with ADM and FT achieved significantly higher five-year survival rate, and the rate of local recurrence was significantly lower with ADM+FT.

Circulating hematopoietic stem cells were collected by three consecutive leukaphereses during post-chemotherapy expansion of the stem cell pool in a 3-year-old boy with advanced and therapy-resistant neuroblastoma. The cells were fractionated by discontinuous Percoll gradient centrifugation, frozen in a programmed freezer and then stored in liquid nitrogen. Following high-dose chemotherapy, the cells were thawed rapidly and re-infused into the patient. Early evidence of marrow recovery was first noted at day 13 and the times required to achieve a granulocyte count of greater than 0.5 x 10(9)/L and a platelet count of greater than 50 x 10(9)/L were 21 days and 30 days, respectively. This new marrow-rescue operation may have potential in cancer therapy as an alternative to bone marrow transplantation and further clinical investigation is warranted.

In a prospectively randomized study, the effect of adjuvant chemotherapy with mitomycin C (MMC) and tegafur (FT) on survival and recurrence was analyzed in 2,477 evaluable patients with colon or rectal cancer who underwent macroscopically curative resection. Patients (1,256 with colon cancer, 1,221 with rectal cancer) were divided into the treatment group (group A) and the control group (surgical resection only, group B). In group A, chemotherapy consisted of intravenous administration of MMC (12 mg/m2 on operative day, followed by 6 mg/m2/2 months, 6 times) and oral administration of FT (800 mg/day for one year). No serious adverse effects were observed in the treatment group. There was no significant difference between group A and group B in three-year survival rate. The disease-free interval curve in group A of rectal cancer revealed significantly better results than group B (p = 0.044). There was no difference in the incidence of local recurrence at three years after operation between group A and group B. The incidence of metachronous liver metastases in group A of rectal cancer was significantly lower than in group B (p = 0.036).

JFMTC conducted the third adjuvant chemotherapy study for gastric cancer patients after curative surgery from 1982 to 1983. Patients were randomly allocated to one of the three arms by telephone method controlled at the headquarters of the foundation. This method resulted in the marked reduction of ineligible cases (253 cases, 6.0% of 4,236 cases), compared with those in the first study (18.3%). Main reasons of ineligibility were the violation of entry criteria due to the misjudgment of noncancer, duplicate cancers and operative curability. Telephone method for random allocation seems to contribute to the improvement in the data quality of a clinical trial.

UFT, antitumor agent containing uracil and futraful (FT-207), was given orally to 14 patients with recurrent or advanced carcinomas (6 gastric, 5 colorectal and 3 other carcinomas) and the clinical effects were evaluated. One PR (partial response) 1 NC (no change) and 9 PD(progressive disease) were obtained among 11 evaluable patients. Response rate was 9.1% (1/11), and overall response rate was 14.3% (2/14). According to Karnofsky's criteria, 2 responders (better than I-A) were obtained and response rate was 15.4% (2/13).

A prospective randomized study was carried out to evaluate the efficacy of surgical adjuvant chemotherapy for non-curatively resected colorectal carcinoma patients as a collaborative study at 428 institutes in Japan from Jan., 1984 to Dec., 1985. A total of 1,138 patients were entered in this study. All patients were divided according to disease location (colon or rectum) and received one of two chemotherapeutic regimens after surgery (Regimen C: MMC 12 mg/m2 i.v. at operation day and 6 mg/m2 in every 2 months +UFT 600 mg/day p.o., D: the same dose of MMC + UFT 400 mg/day p.o.) randomly. 556 cases (colon carcinoma regimen C: 148, D: 185 cases, rectal carcinoma regimen C: 94, D: 129 cases) were evaluable at this presentation. Three-year-survival rate of histologically confirmed non-curatively resected colon carcinoma patients was higher in the group receiving regimen C than in regimen D. But no significant difference was found among the other groups.

To evaluate the efficacy of surgical adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with curatively resected colorectal cancer (excluding m and sm cancer), a randomized controlled study was performed from January 1982 to October 1983. The schedules for drug administration were different in four districts, and four randomly assigned protocols were studied using tegafur (FT), ACNU, MMC and ADM. A total of 4,906 cases from 491 institutions were entered and 4,206 cases were varied for the study. There were no significant differences in 3-year survival rate in each district protocol. According to Dukes C for rectal cancer patients, ADM + FT group was higher than the FT only group in 3-year survival rate (p = 0.092) and had a significantly longer survival than FT only group in 3-year disease-free rate (p = 0.011). The rate of local recidivation in colon cancer resected curatively was higher in ACNU + FT group than in FT only group (p less than 0.05). A tendency for decreased liver metastasis was observed in FT group compared with the control group, and liver metastasis of ADM + FT group was lower than that of FT only group. No serious adverse effects were observed in any protocol.

A 60-year old woman with metastatic malignant melanoma who was well responded to a combination chemotherapy including DTIC was reported. She was noted a lentigo in the left first toe and histological examination revealed malignant melanoma in October 1978. Amputation of the left lower leg and dissection of the left inguinal lymph nodes had been done. OK-432 was injected as postoperative immunotherapy. She was readmitted to our hospital with the symptoms of pain and numbness of the left arm. Physical examination revealed a palpable mass in the left supraclavicular region. Incisional biopsy of the supraclavicular mass revealed metastatic malignant melanoma. She received a combination of 100mg DTIC i.v. for 5 days, 100 mg ACNU i.v. for one day and 1 mg VCR i.v. for one day (DAV chemotherapy) postoperatively. Subcutaneous injection of OK-432 with the dose of 5 KE per week was continued. Major side effects of DAV chemotherapy were nausea and transient leukocytopenia. No serious side effects were observed. On completion of the first course of DAV chemotherapy, abnormal shadow of the left apex was completely disappeared and on completion of the third course of DAV chemotherapy, high density area was markedly decreased in the cervical CT. She gained symptomatic reliefs and was discharged in August 1983. The combination chemotherapy including DTIC appeared to be effective in the treatment of metastatic malignant melanoma.

In order to evaluate the efficacy of surgical adjuvant chemotherapy in patients undergoing gross curative resection for colorectal cancer (excluding m and sm cancer), a randomized controlled study was conducted from January, 1982 to October, 1983. Four hundred and ninety-one institutions participated in this study. The schedules for drug administration differed according to each district. In the Hokkaido and Shikoku districts, the patients were divided into the following two groups, one was a combination of ACNU and Futraful (FT) and the other was FT only. In the Chubu and Kinki districts, three groups were studied, namely those receiving a combination of ACNU and FT, those receiving FT only and those given no adjuvant chemotherapy. In the Tohoku and Kanto districts, a combination of MMC and FT and administration of FT only were studied. In the Chugoku and Kyushu districts, the patients were divided into a combination of ADM and FT, and FT only group. Among the 3,926 registered cases, 3,421 cases were valid for the study. As to the background factors, there were no significant differences among the groups in each district. There were no significant differences in one-year survival rates and one-year disease-free rates. No serious adverse effects were observed in any of the groups.