Basic experiments on oral administration of 5-fluorouracil emulsion as adjuvant chemotherapy to surgical treatment for gastric cancer.

Oral administration of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) emulsion was compared experimentally with that of 5-FU aqueous solution as to the degree of absorption and tissue distribution. After oral administration of both the 5-FU emulsion and the 5-FU solution, 5-FU was detected at the highest level in both the stomach and the duodenum. This seems to suggest that 5-FU is strongly affinitive to the tissues of the gastrointestinal tract. As to the relative concentration of these two forms of the drug, the oral administration of the 5-FU emulsion resulted in a maximum value 1.5 times higher than that of the 5-FU solution. An appreciable concentration of 5-FU was maintained for a considerably long time with the administration of 5-FU emulsion. In the lymph, the maximum level of the 5-FU emulsion was three times higher than that of the 5-FU solution. The drug concentration of the 5-FU emulsion remained higher than that of the 5-FU solution through the entire duration of the experiment. Regarding the drug concentration in the regional lymph nodes, the pattern demonstrated was almost the same as in the lymph itself.