Prolonged stable disease effects survival in patients with solid gastric tumor: analysis of phase II studies of doxifluridine.

We have previously reported that the survival time of most patients with solid tumors depend primarily on the length of the cytostatic phase rather than the extent of reduction induced. We analyzed a phase II study of doxifluridine, an intermediate metabolite of capecitabine, in gastric cancer to confirm our concept, because doxifluridine has shown low response rates (14%; 20/140) and long median survival times (371 days). The time to progression curves between the responder and stable disease were almost the same. The survival curves of the patients with stable disease of more than 90 days to progression (32 pts.) and responders were not significantly different.