a phase ii study on continuous infusional paclitaxel and 5fu as firstline chemotherapy for patients with advanced esophageal cancer objective this study was performed to evaluated the efficacy and safety of continuous infusional paclitaxel and 5fu as firstline chemotherapy in patients with advanced esophageal squamous cell cancer esccmethods a total of 22 patients with advanced esophageal squamous cell cancer with no indications for surgery and radiation therapy or recurrent patients were enrolled from october 2008 to november 2010 all were treated with ptx 20 mgm2 was administered through a 16 hours continuous intravenous infusion on days 1 to 3 8 and 9 ddp 375 mgm2 was given on days 1 to 4 and 8 to 11 continuous infusional 5fu over 24hours on days 1 to 5 and 8 to 12 at a dose of 375 mgm2 and folacin 60 mg orally synchronized with 5fu the treatment was repeated every 21 days for at least two cyclesresults 22 cases of all enrolled patients could be evaluated for the effect of treatment 2 cases were cr 9 cases pr 5 cases sd and 2 cases pd giving an overall response rate of 682 1522 the median time to progression was 70 months the adverse reactions related to chemotherapy were tolerable the most common toxic effects were marrow depression alopecia and fatigueconclusion lowdose continuous infusional ptx over 16hours and 5fu over 24hours is a promising regimen with good tolerability in treating patients with advanced esophageal squamous cell cancer