5-Fluorouracil in the treatment of gastrointestinal neoplasia.

FLUOROURACIL has been available for clinical use since 1958, and has been reported to produce objective tumor regressions in 11 to 50 per cent of patients with far advanced gastrointestinal cancer. For the most part, patients are treated by the method first advocated by Curreri1 and Ansfield2 and their co-workers, in which a loading course of 15 mg per kilogram of body weight is given by intravenous injection daily for four or five days, followed by maintenance doses of 7.5 mg per kilogram every other day until toxicity occurs. This regimen produces toxicity in most patients and a reported mortality . . .