Abstract
Previous trials of adjuvant chemotherapy for oesophagogastric cancer have shown only modest or no improvement in survival. However, the regimens used in these studies produce low response rates in patients with advanced disease. ECF is a new regimen which results in higher response rates and may therefore be more effective in the adjuvant setting. Twenty-nine patients who had undergone a potentially curative resection for oesphagogastric carcinoma were treated with ECF [epirubicin 50 mg m-2 and cisplatin 60 mg m-2 for 18 weeks]. The median age was 52.5 years. Three patients had oesophageal tumours, 14 had tumours of the oesophagogastric junction (OGJ) and 12 had gastric tumours. All were adenocarcinomas apart from one undifferentiated carcinoma. One patient had stage I disease, nine stage II, 17 stage II and two stage IV. The mean number of chemotherapy cycles per patient was 5.2 (range 2-8). The median follow-up was 8.4 months (1.5-36.3 months). Eleven patients relapsed during follow-up (38%). One patient had an anastomotic recurrence and ten patients distant metastases. Overall 3 year survival was 61.5% (95% confidence interval 42-79); 3 year survival in stage II was 50% (21.2-86.3) and in stage III 65.6% (40-86). Chemotherapy was well tolerated, with grade 3/4 toxicity as follows: leucopenia 13.5%, nausea and vomiting 10%, diarrhoea 3.5%, infection 3.5% and thrombocytopenia 3.5%. There were no treatment-related deaths. We conclude that ECF can be administered safely as adjuvant treatment to patients with surgically resected gastro-oesophageal carcinoma. The results, especially in patients with stage III disease, are encouraging and support the investigation of this regimen within a prospective randomised trial.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 24 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $10.79 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bamias, A., Cunningham, D., Nicolson, V. et al. Adjuvant chemotherapy for oesophagogastric cancer with epirubicin, cisplatin and infusional 5-fluorouracil (ECF): a Royal Marsden pilot study. Br J Cancer 71, 583–586 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1995.113
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1995.113
This article is cited by
-
Perioperative management of esophageal cancer
Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology (2010)