RESUMO
AIMS: To assess the activity of a continuous infusion of 5-fluorouracil in patients with recurrent locally advanced or metastatic transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary tract. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eight centres within the UK entered 50 patients into the study. Twenty-four weeks of continuously infused 5-fluorouracil, 300mg/m(2)/day through a mini-pump, were planned. The primary outcome was tumour response at 8 weeks after the start of treatment. RESULTS: The median age of the patients was 68 years and 37 (80.4%) had a World Health Organization performance status of 0 or 1. The overall response rate at 8 weeks, according to the response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECIST) criteria in 46 evaluable patients, was 15% (95% confidence interval 5-26%) and 20% (95% confidence interval 8-31%) when assessments at all time points were included. The median progression-free survival was 1.9 months (95% confidence interval 1.8-2.7 months) and the median overall survival was 6.5 months (95% confidence interval 4.1-8.5 months). The most frequent grade 3/4 toxicities were mucositis and diarrhoea (each in 6.5% of patients) and nausea/vomiting and hand-foot syndrome (each in 4.3% of patients). CONCLUSIONS: Continuous infusional 5-fluorouracil has activity in transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary tract. Prolonged fluoropyrimidine administration may be a useful component of future combination regimens for this disease, particularly in patients with poor renal function.