In the past 5–10 years there has been a growing trend for substituting conventional 5-fluorouracil with the oral prodrug of 5-fluorouracil, capecitabine, in chemotherapy regimens. This regimen ...

Background. A 66-year-old woman with metastatic mammary carcinoma, who was being treated with capecitabine, contracted a herpes zoster infection that was treated with the antiviral drug brivudin.

Market research from the manufacturers of capecitabine indicates that the clinical community has voted with its empirical feet—it is relatively rare for US-based oncologists to prescribe the ...