Abstract
Purpose: For over 50 years, 5-FU has played a critical role in the systemic chemotherapy of cancer patients. 5-FU serves as the main backbone of combination chemotherapy for patients with colorectal cancer in both the adjuvant and metastatic disease settings. Herein, we review the current status of 5-FU therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) and discuss its potential role in the clinical practice setting. Method: PubMed and abstracts from the American Society of Clinical Oncology were searched up through September 2015 for clinical data relating to 5-FU TDM. Results: 5-FU dosing has been typically determined by using body surface area (BSA). However, it is now well established that BSA-based 5-FU dosing is correlated with a wide variation of 5-FU systemic exposure. Pharmacokinetic (PK) studies of 5-FU systemic exposure have shown a wide range of interpatient variation of 5-FU plasma drug levels. Over the past 30 years, increasing efforts have been placed on optimizing 5-FU dosing with the main goals of increasing antitumor efficacy while reducing drug-associated toxicity. There is growing evidence to show that 5-FU dosing based on plasma 5-FU drug level is feasible and that 5-FU TDM can improve clinical outcomes by improving efficacy of 5-FU-based combination regimens and reducing toxicities. Conclusion: Dose adjustment of 5-FU is feasible, and PK-based dosing can significantly improve clinical outcomes by reducing toxicities and improving efficacy.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 447-464 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology |
Volume | 78 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 1 2016 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Toxicology
- Pharmacology
- Cancer Research
- Pharmacology (medical)