An analysis is done of 40 evaluable patients treated with a combination of 5-Fluorouracil, adriamycin and mitomycin-C for primary hepatocellular carcinoma in Saudi Arabia. In only 5 patients (12.5%) objective partial remission was achieved. The duration of remission for responding patients was: 6, 6, 8, 12 and 20 weeks, respectively. Responders demonstrated a short survival time of 8, 8, 10, 15 and 33 weeks. The median survival time of non-responders was 8 weeks, which was not different from that of responders. An analysis of potential factors that might contribute to our poor results is presented.