A 71-year-old man underwent right hemicolectomy for an ascending colon cancer (stageII, Cur A) in September 2001. Adjuvant chemotherapy with tegafur/uracil was performed, but CT scans and FDG-PET, conducted in May 2003, revealed cancerous pleuritis and lung metastasis. Although 2 courses of the chemotherapy with LV+5-FU (RPMI regimen) were completed, progressive disease was confirmed. Therefore, the chemotherapy with CPT-11 (100 mg/ day; day 1, 15)+S-1 (100 mg/day; day 1-21) was started in May 2004. After completion of 6 courses, CT scan showed a partial response. Only grade 2 vomiting was noted as an adverse reaction to the treatment, however, the patient has been managed on an outpatient basis for the last 3 years with good QOL and the cancer under control. This case suggests that this combination therapy can be expected to be highly effective as a safe approach for continuously maintaining the QOL of patients with advanced or recurrent colorectal cancer.

Matsuda T, Shikata S.

Dept. of Surgery, Soseikai General Hospital.