Clinical evaluation of combination chemotherapy of solid tumors with five or six anticancer drugs.

The clinical effects of combination chemotherapy with five or six anticancer drugs were investigated on the patients with the advanced cancer which originated mainly from the gastrointestinal tract. The five-drug regimen was found effective in 15 of 21 patients (71%) and the six-drug regimen in 29 of 43 patients (67%). The incidence of the cases which showed favorable clinical responses was higher in the five and six-drug regimens than in the one-, twoand three-drug regimens. Leukopenia, which occurred in almost half of the patients, was observed more frequently in cases of the six-drug regimen than in cases of the five-drug regimen. Gastrointestinal disturbances were found frequently during and after treatment, and seemed to be aggravated mainly by 5-FU and SP-G in these regimens. The main reasons for the discontinuation of these therapies were firstly leukopenia and secondly gastrointestinal upsets. The cases treated with the five or six-drug regimen survived only slightly longer than the non-treated. However, there were few remarkable differences in the survival period between the cases of the five or six-drug regimen and the cases of other regimens.