Keizo Sugimachi, Yoshihiko Maehara, Michio Ogawa, Teruo Kakegawa, Masao Tomita
A retrospective analysis of postoperative chemotherapy had shown the continuous administration of UFT, an oral preparation of 1-(2-tetrahydrofuryl)-5-¯uorouracil (tegafur) and uracil at a molar ratio of 1:4, to be e€ective for poorly di€erentiated gastric cancer. We therefore sought to determine prospectively the effective dose of postoperative chemotherapy with UFT for patients with poorly di€erentiated gastric cancer following a curative resection. We determined the e€ect of the combined intravenous administration of mitomycin C (MMC) and oral treatment with protein-bound polysaccharide Kreha (PSK), extracted from the basidiomycete Coriolus versicolor, and UFT at a dose of either 8 mg/kg or 12 mg/kg daily for 1 year. A total of 224 patients with poorly di€erentiated stage II±IV gastric cancer were entered into this study after undergoing a curative resection. No di€erences were observed between the two treatment groups in terms of prognostic factors, the toxicity rate or the doses of the drugs prescribed, other than UFT. The higher dose of UFT in maintenance therapy led to a decrease in the recurrence rate (P < 0.05), and increases in disease-free survival and cause-speci®c survival (P < 0.05). UFT at 12 mg/ kg in postoperative chemotherapy was thus found- to improve the postoperative results with no increase in toxicity for poorly di€erentiated gastric cancer, and is also cost-e€ective for outpatients.
Intravenous fluorouracil and leucovorin is the standard adjuvant treatment for stage III colon cancer. However, oral adjuvant chemotherapy is attractive because it has low toxicity and greater convenience. We investigated the benefits of oral protein-bound polysaccharide K (PSK) with tegafur/uracil (UFT) as an adjuvant in stage II and III colorectal cancer. Patients were assigned to groups that received either 3 g PSK plus 300 mg UFT, or 300 mg UFT alone orally each day for a 2-year period following intravenous mitomycin C. Of 207 registered patients, 205 with stage II (n¼123) or III (n¼82) were analysed. The 5-year disease-free survival was 73.0% (95% CI 65.6–80.4%) with PSK (n¼137) and 58.8% (95% CI 47.1–70.5%) in the controls (n¼68) (P¼0.016). POLYSACCHARIDE K reduced the recurrence by 43.6% (95% CI 4.5–66.7%) and mortality by 40.2% (95% CI _12.5 to 68.3%). The 5-year survival was 81.8% (95% CI 75.3–88.2%) in the PSK group and 72.1% (95% CI 61.4–82.7%) in the control group (P¼0.056). In stage III patients, disease-free and overall survivals in patients receiving PSK were increased significantly: 60.0% (95% CI 47.1–72.9%) and 74.6% (95% CI 63.0–86.1%) in the PSK group as compared with 32.1% (95% CI 14.8–49.4%) and 46.4% (95% CI 28.0–64.9%) in the controls (P¼0.002 and 0.003, respectively). Polysaccharide K prevented recurrence, particularly lung metastases (P¼0.02; odds ratio 0.27; 95% CI 0.09–0.77). In the models, the presence of regional metastases (relative risk, 2.973; 95% CI 1.712–5.165; Po0.001), omission of PSK (relative risk, 2.106; 95% CI 1.221–3.633; P¼0.007), and higher primary tumour (relative risk, 4.398; 95% CI 1.017–19.014; P¼0.047) were each significant indicators of recurrence. Adverse effects were mild and compliance was good. Oral PSK with UFT reduced recurrence in stage II and III colorectal cancer, and increased survival in stage III.
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Coriolus versicolor, all natural, immunotherapy, Coriolus, PSP, PSK, Yun Zhi, Yunzhi, turkey tail, Trametes versicolor, Trametes, immune booster, immune builder, mushroom studies, mushroom science, mushroom benefits, myceila, cancer, tumor, virus, diseases