Biochem/physiol Actions

Capecitabine is a fluoropyrimidine carbamate that undergoes preferential conversion to 5-fluorouracil in cancerous tissues.

Capecitabine is an anti-cancer drug, a prodrug of doxifluridine, metabolized to 5-fluorouracil at the tumor site. The activation of capecitabine follows a pathway with three enzymatic steps and two intermediary metabolites, 5′-Deoxy-5-fluorocytidine (5′-DFCR) and 5′-Deoxy-5-fluorouridine (5′-DFUR), to form 5-fluorouracil.