Complete clinical remission in a patient with advanced pancreatic cancer using mitomycin C-based chemotherapy: the role of adjunctive heparin.

In a patient with advanced pancreatic cancer, with a hypercoagulable state, a complete clinical response was obtained with a mitomycin-based regimen plus adjunctive heparin. The patient converted from a partial response to a complete response with the addition of heparin, raising the possibility that heparin was somehow involved in the process. Recent studies have reported prolongation of survival in patients with cancer who were given heparin along with chemotherapy.

Overwhelming 5-fluorouracil toxicity in patients whose diabetes is poorly controlled.

The author presents seven patients with diabetes and cites from the literature seven patients with diabetes with probable enhanced 5-fluorouracil toxicity. In the author's seven patients, the amount of toxicity was directly related to the degree of hyperglycemia. In three of these patients who had the most severe hyperglycemia, toxicity was overwhelming, and led to death in two patients.