• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.31-44
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• 2015

Background : The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy and safety of the circadian delivery schedule of fluorouracil or capecitabine based chemotherapy for advanced colorectal cancer. Patients and methods : A meta-analysis was performed using individual data from eight international randomized clinical trials, especially phase II or III trials, comparing 5-fluorouracil, or capeticabine in chronomodulated or conventional schedule. The data from 8 studies was composed of 692 patients receiving chronomodulated chemotheray and 684 patients receiving conventional chemotherapy. The main end point was response rate. Results : Response rate was insignificantly different from each group (RR 1.14, 95%CI 0.74-1.74, p=0.55). Overall survival and progresseion-free survival were not significant either. Chemotherapy induced anemia, diarrhea, and nausea/vomiting were worse in the chronotherapy group, with statistic significance respectively. On the other hand, chemotherapy induced thrombocytopenia, stomatitis, peripheral neuropathy, and dermatotoxicity were better but they were not statistically significant results. Conclusions : Patients lived longer but not significantly on chronomodulated chemotherapy rather than on conventional chemotherapy. Patients on chronomodulated chemotherapy experienced adverse events more. The chronomodulated chemotherapy schedule needs adjustment of its delivery schedule and further research is required.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.14
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• pp.5681-5686
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• 2015

Background: Pancreatic cancer ranks fourth in deaths caused by cancers throughout the world. Gemcitabine chemotherapy is the primary method of treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer, and in asco2014, it is still firstline chemotherapy. Howeve,r gemcitabine+fluorouracil regimens are also licensed and widely used worldwide. Clinical trials are the best way to evaluate drug efficacy. In this study, we performed a systematic review and a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess whether gemcitabine+fluoropyrimidine combination therapy improves the prognosis of unresectable pancreatic cancer compared with gemcitabine treatment alone. Materials and Methods: A quantitative up-to-date meta-analysis was undertaken to investigate the efficacy of gemcitabine-based combination treatment compared with gemcitabine monotherapy for locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer. Inclusion was limited to high-quality randomized clinical trials. Results: A total of 12 studies were included in the present analysis, with a total of 3,038 patients recruited. The studies were divided into three subgroups including 5-FU / CAP / S-1 combined with gemcitabine. For the primary endpoint of overall survival (OS), gemcitabine-based combination therapy demonstrated significantly better outcome (HR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.81-0.95) than gemcitabine monotherapy. The analysis of progression free survival (PFS) also provided a significant result for the combined therapy in a total of 8 trials (2,130 patients) (HR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.63-0.86). With subgroup analysis according to the method of dosing delivery, we found that in the injection group with 3 trials (889 patients), a negative result was found (HR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.77-1.12); while a positive result was observed in the oral group with 9 trials (2,149 patients) (HR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.80-0.95). Conclusions: Gemcitabine combination therapy provides a modest improvement of survival, but is associated with more toxicity compared with gemcitabine monotherapy.