Retrospective analysis of docetaxel, oxaliplatin plus fluorouracil compared with epirubicin, cisplatin and fluorouracil as first-line therapy for advanced gastric cancer

The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of docetaxel, oxaliplatin plus fluorouracil (DOF) regimen in comparison with epirubicin, cisplatin and fluorouracil (ECF) regimen in treating AGC. A total of 88 AGC patients were treated with DOF regimen (N=45) and ECF regimen (N=43) respectively. The end points of this study were response rate, survival, and toxicity. The overall response rates for DOF and ECF were 42.2% and 37.3%, and the respective tumour control rates were 80% and 60.6%, respectively. While the median progression-free survival (PFS) approached 6.7 and 5.0 months for DOF and ECF, the overall survival (OS) was 11.4 and 9.8 months respectively. Although both groups showed acceptable level of toxicity, compared with ECF, DOF group was associated with less nausea/vomiting and alopecia but more peripheral neuropathy and neutropenia. Although DOF and ECF exhibit similar efficacy, DOF may broaden the spectrum of chemotherapeutically treatable patients and deserve further investigation.