To assess their stability as a prodrug of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), four N-acyloxycarbonyl derivatives (1-(N-tert-butyloxycarbonyl)glycyloxymethyl-5-FU :BGFU, 1-(N-tert-butyloxycar bonyl)-leucyloxymethyl-5-FU:BLFU, 1-(N-tert-carbobenzyloxymethyl) glycyloxymethyl-5-FU:CGFU and 1-(N-tert-carbobenzlyoxymethyl)leucyloxymethyl-5-FU:CLFU) possessing differently protected amino acids, and two acetic acid derivatives (5FU-1-acetylpentane:FUAP and 5-FU-1-acetylhexane:FUAH) were synthesized and their physicochemical properties, hydrolysis kinetics, acute toxicity and antitumor activity were evaluated. The lipid-water partition coefficients of six 5-FU prodrugs were higher than that of 5-FU and their aqueous solubilities were in the following rank order; BGFU>FUAP>CGFU>BLFU>CLFU${simeq}$FUAH. The hydrolysis of N-acyloxycarboyl derivatives, greater at higher pH, was enhanced in presence of liver homogenate or human plasma. Meanwhile, acetic acid ester derivatives, very stable, were hydrolyzed by liver homogenate. Absorption rate constants were 0.181, 0.121, 0.111, 0.168, 0.168, 0.116 and 0.125 $hr^{-1}$ for 5-FU, BGFU, BLFU, CGFU, CLFU, FUAP and FUAH, respectively. The cytotoxicity of N-acyloxycarbonyl derivatives was 4 to 5 times lower than that of 5-FU, but that of acetic acid ester derivatives was negligeble. The $LD_{50}$ values were 204, 325.97 (133.59, amount as 5-FU), 708.16 (262.13), 663.50 (211.77), 382.33 (192.54) and 272.33 (130.09) mg/kg for 5-FU, BGFU, CGFU, CLFU, FUAP and FUAH, respectively. While N-acyloxycarbonyl derivatives showed enhanced antitumor activity and therapeutic ratio (3.30, 3.06, 4.19, 3.11 and 1.81 for BGFU, BLFU, CGFU, CLFU and 5-FU, respectively), FUAH and FUAP showed a smaller therapeutic ratio (0.79 and 0.83).