RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Chemoprotective drugs such as triacetyluridine may protect normal cells from the side effects of chemotherapy.

PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of triacetyluridine, fluorouracil, and leucovorin in treating patients who have unresectable, locally advanced, or metastatic cancer of the esophagus or stomach.

OBJECTIVES:

• Assess the 6-month survival rate in patients with unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic adenocarcinoma of the stomach or gastroesophageal junction treated with triacetyluridine, fluorouracil, and leucovorin calcium.
• Evaluate the qualitative and quantitative toxic effects of this regimen in these patients.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.

Patients receive leucovorin calcium IV over 2 hours and fluorouracil IV over 30 minutes beginning 1 hour into leucovorin calcium infusion on days 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, and 36. Patients receive oral triacetyluridine every 8 hours on days 1-3, 8-10, 15-17, 22-24, 29-31, and 36-38 beginning 8 hours after completion of each fluorouracil infusion. Courses repeat every 8 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Patients are followed every 6 months for up to 3 years.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 53 patients will be accrued for this study.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically or cytologically proven unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic adenocarcinoma of the stomach or gastroesophageal junction

• No known brain metastases

  • Negative brain imaging required for neurologic signs and symptoms

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

• 18 and over

Performance status:

• Zubrod 0-1

Life expectancy:

• Not specified

Hematopoietic:

• Absolute neutrophil count at least 1,500/mm^3
• Platelet count greater than 100,000/mm^3

Hepatic:

• Bilirubin no greater than upper limit of normal (ULN)
• SGOT or SGPT no greater than 1.5 times ULN (5 times ULN if liver tumor present)

Renal:

• Creatinine no greater than ULN

Other:

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• Must be able to swallow oral medication
• No AIDS syndrome or HIV-associated complex
• No other malignancy within the past 5 years except adequately treated basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer, carcinoma in situ of the cervix, or adequately treated stage I or II cancer in complete remission

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

• No prior biologic therapy
• No concurrent biologic therapy

Chemotherapy:

• No prior chemotherapy for advanced or metastatic gastric cancer
• At least 6 months since prior chemotherapy as adjuvant or radiation sensitizer

Endocrine therapy:

• Not specified

Radiotherapy:

• At least 1 month since prior radiotherapy and recovered
• No concurrent radiotherapy

Surgery:

• At least 3 weeks since prior major surgical resection of intra-abdominal organs and recovered