Toxicities associated with chemotherapy regimens containing a fluoropyrimidine: A real-life evaluation in France.

Aims: Despite fluoropyrimidines (FPs) constituting the main component of the chemotherapy combination protocols in 50% of chemotherapies for solid tumour treatments, incidence data for FP-related toxicity are poorly documented in real life. This study evaluated the number of patients receiving FP-based chemotherapies in France, along with the true incidence of FP-related serious adverse effects (SAEs) before the recent mandatory dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD)-screening was introduced by French health authorities, DPD being the rate-limiting enzyme of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) catabolism.

Methods: Exhaustive data on the number of patients treated with FP-based chemotherapy in 2013-2014 were collected in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France.