Capecitabine and docetaxel have considerable single-agent activity in gastric cancer with distinct mechanisms of action and no overlap of key toxicities. A synergistic interaction between these two drugs is mediated by taxane-induced upregulation of thymidine phosphorylase. We investigated the activity and the feasibility of capecitabine and docetaxel combination chemotherapy in patients with previously untreated advanced gastric cancer (AGC). From September 2001 to March 2003, 42 patients with AGC received 21-day cycles of oral capecitabine (1250 mg x m(-2) twice daily on days 1-14) and docetaxel (75 mg x m(-2) i.v. on day 1). The patients received a total of 164 cycles of chemotherapy. The median age was 53.5 years (range 33-73 years). The overall response rate in the 38 efficacy-evaluable patients was 60% (95% confidence interval, 45-74%). The median progression-free survival was 5.2 months (range, 1.0-15.5+ months) and the median overall survival was 10.5 months (range, 2.9-23.7+ months). The most common grade 3/4 adverse events were hand-foot syndrome (HFS: G3 50%), neutropenia (15%) and leucopenia (12%). Further studies of this combination are clearly warranted, albeit with lower doses of both agents (1000 mg x m(-2) twice daily and 60 mg x m(-2)) to reduce the rate of HFS and onycholysis.