ADVANCED BREAST-CANCER-TREATMENT WITH FOLINIC ACID, 5-FLUOROURACIL, AND MITOMYCIN-C

A total of 44 women with advanced breast cancer who had failed first- and second-line chemotherapy were given combination chemotherapy consi sting of folinic acid (FA), 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and mitomycin C (MMC ). The treatment schedule was: 200 mg/m2 FA and 400 mg/m2 5-FU given i . v. over 2 h for 5 days plus 5 mg/m2 MMC given i. v. on days 3 - 5; i n 19 patients with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) perfor mance status of 3-4 and bone marrow depression, the MMC dose was 3 mg/ m2 given i.v. on days 3-5. In all, 41 patients were evaluable for resp onse; 15 had a partial remission (PR), 18 had stable disease (SD), and 8 showed progressive disease (PD). The median response duration was 6 months and the median survival was 10 months. Toxicity was mild and c onsisted mainly of stomatitis, diarrhea, and leukopenia. A rapid impro vement in performance status was noted in responding patients. A strik ing result was the reduction of analgesics in most cases and their com plete withdrawal in responding patients. This combination chemotherapy achieved satisfactory effectiveness and improved the quality of life of patients.