TY - JOUR AB - The use of anticancer drugs in palliative settings is often limited by their severe toxic effects. In gastrointestinal carcinomas the 5-fluorouracil-based palliative regimen FOLFOX-4 is often preferred to the equally effective, but more convenient oral capecitabine-based regimen XELOX. This preference is mainly based on the fact that the highly effective oral agent capecitabine induces hand-foot syndrome (HFS). In this study, we investigated whether the continuous administration of skin prophylaxis (10% urea, panthenol, bisabolol, vitamin A, C and E) is capable of protecting against capecitabine-induced HFS and allowing a more convenient oral therapeutic option. In this retrospective analysis, the toxicity profiles, according to NCI CTCAE 3.0 criteria, of 54 patients with gastrointestinal cancer who received either XELOX (34 patients) or FOLFOX-4 (20 patients) were compared using Fisher tests. The treatment protocols that were compared, herein, did not differ significantly in the majority of the analyzed items, with the exception of increased nausea (XELOX-70), fatigue (XELOX-130) and tumor pain (XELOX-70 and XELOX-130). No significant differences were observed among the various groups with regard to emesis, diarrhea, mucositis, exanthema, alopecia, loss of weight and the incidence of infections. In particular, no significant differences in toxicity levels occurred in terms of dose, and HFS was limited if skin prophylaxis was performed continuously. XELOX-based palliative regimens provide an equally effective and comparably toxic therapeutic alternative to FOLFOX-4 if HFS prophylaxis is performed continuously. Since the oral administration of capecitabine is a more convenient method of application, it provides patients with a quality of life-preserving therapeutic alternative. AD - University Hospital Mainz, III. Medical Department, 55131 Mainz, Germany University Hospital Mainz, I. Medical Department, 55131 Mainz, Germany AU - Wehler,Thomas ,C. AU - Cao,Yang AU - Galle,Peter ,R. AU - Theobald,Matthias AU - Moehler,Markus AU - Schimanski,Carl ,C. DA - 2012/06/01 DO - 10.3892/ol.2012.640 EP - 1194 IS - 6 JO - Oncol Lett KW - capecitabine 5-fluorouracil hand-foot syndrome gastrointestinal carcinoma PY - 2012 SN - 1792-1074 1792-1082 SP - 1191 ST - Combination therapies with oxaliplatin and oral capecitabine or intravenous 5-FU show similar toxicity profiles in gastrointestinal carcinoma patients if hand-food syndrome prophylaxis is performed continuously T2 - Oncology Letters TI - Combination therapies with oxaliplatin and oral capecitabine or intravenous 5-FU show similar toxicity profiles in gastrointestinal carcinoma patients if hand-food syndrome prophylaxis is performed continuously UR - https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2012.640 VL - 3 ER -