Monotherapy with the orally-administered fluoropyrimidine capecitabine ['Xeloda'] has shown efficacy in the treatment of solid tumours such as breast cancer and colorectal cancer. Now, studies presented at ECCO 11 - the European Cancer Conference [Lisbon, Portugal; October 2001], have shown that capecitabine can also produce very promising results when administered in combination with other antineoplastics, with manageable toxicity. Capecitabine has shown superior tolerability to IV bolus fluorouracil [5-FU], as capecitabine exploits the higher thymidine phosphorylase activity in malignant tissue to be predominantly converted to fluorouracil at the tumour site.