Weekly high-dose 5-fluorouracil and folinic acid in metastatic pancreatic carcinoma: a phase II study of the EORTC GastroIntestinal Tract Cancer Cooperative Group

Abstract The aim of the study was to assess the response rate and toxicity of high-dose 24 h infusion of 5-fluorouracil (5FU) in metastatic adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. Patients with measurable disease, performance status 0–2, and no prior chemotherapy were registered to receive cycles of leucovorin (LV) 500 mg/m 2 (or l-LV 250 mg/m 2 over 1 h followed by 5FU 2.6 g/m 2 over 24 h, weekly for 6 weeks, followed by a 2-week rest. The main endpoints were the response rate and toxicity. From 37 patients, 36 were the analysed for toxicity, and 33 were eligible and analysed for response. The median age was 59 years (range 28–74 years), and the median performance status was 1. Partial response was observed in three patients (9%) (95% Confidential Interval (CI): [2–24]%). Main grade 3/4 National Cancer Institute (NCI) common toxicity criteria toxicities (patients) were diarrhoea ( n =3), vomiting ( n =2) and hand–foot syndrome ( n =5). Median time to progression was 7 weeks (95% CI: [6.4–11.7] weeks) and median survival 19 weeks (95% CI: [12–35] weeks). In conclusion, high-dose 5FU and folinic acid is well tolerated, but has only modest activity in pancreatic cancer.