Safety and Efficacy of Continuous Low-dose Doxorubicin and Fluorouracil (5FU) with Best Supportive Care Compared to Best Standard of Care alone for Patients with Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Bader A. Abdelmaksoud*, Mostafa M. Toam, Alaa A. Fayed
Affiliation
Department of clinical oncology and nuclear medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig university, Zagazig, Egypt
Corresponding Author
Bader A. Abdelmaksoud, Department of clinical oncology and nuclear medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig university, Zagazig, Egypt, E-mail: bader6a@yahoo.com
Citation
Abdelmaksoud, B.A., et al. Safety and Efficacy of Low-Dose Doxorubicin and Fluorouracil (5FU) with Best Supportive Care Compared To Best Supportive Care Alone for Patients with Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma. (2017) Int J Cancer Oncol 4(1): 1- 8.
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© 2017 Abdelmaksoud, B.A. This is an Open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Keywords
Abstract
Aim:To evaluate the safety and efficacy of low-dose doxorubicin and 5FU with best supportive care compared to best supportive care alone for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.
Patients and methods: Atotal of 60 patients (49 male and 11 females) with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma were enrolled. All patients were randomly divided into two groups. Treatment group: patients receive one day cycle of intravenous doxorubicin 20 mg/m² and 5FU 500 mg along with best supportive care, the cycle repeated every two weeks continuously until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity or patient refusal. Control group (best supportive care only): Patients received supportive treatment in the form of liver support, tonics, and other symptomatic treatment until death or patient refusal.
Results: After a median follow- up of one year, all patients died except three patients still alive. There were 5 patients (16.7%) in treatment group (group A) achieved Partial Response(PR) compared to No Response (NR) in all patients (100%) of control group (group B )(P -value 0.052). the median Progression Free Survival (PFS) was 5 months in group A and 3.5 months in group B, ( P- value 0.018), also, in group A the median Overall Survival (OS) was 8 months compared to 6 months in group B, with one year (OS) rates 9.4% and 3.7% in group A and B respectively (P-value 0.125). there were minimal treatment-related toxicities, and all patients completed treatment without interruption.
Conclusion: Low dose doxorubicin with 5FU are well tolerated and shows modest anti- tumor efficacy in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.
