An interim report of a prospective, randomized, controlled study of adjuvant chemotherapy in operable gastric cancer: British stomach cancer group

A prospective, randomized, controlled study of adjuvant chemotherapy in operable gastric cancer was commenced in 1976. Four hundred and eleven patients have been randomized into 1 of 3 treatment groups. Group A received a placebo injection of intravenous normal saline (10 ml) at 3‐week intervals. Group B received a 5‐day induction course of 5‐fluorouracil (5‐FU), vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and methotrexate followed by 3‐week intravenous injections of 5‐FU and mitomycin C (MMC). Group C received 3‐week intravenous injections of 5‐FU and MMC. The treatment was to be given for 2 years. Patients were stratified for age, sex, preoperative duration of symptoms, and clinicopathological stage prior to randomization. At this interim analysis, preoperative duration of symptoms and clinicopathological stage were statistically significant prognostic factors (p=