title: The role of adjuvant chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced head and neck cancer.
abstract: The role of chemotherapy in the multidisciplinary treatment of advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck remains to be defined. Uncontrolled adjuvant studies integrating chemotherapy with local therapies utilizing a 'sequential' or 'simultaneous' strategy have indicated that high response rates to initial chemotherapy and high complete remission rates are achievable. Both these factors appear to predict for improved survival. Unfortunately results of randomized, controlled studies generally have not confirmed any major overall survival advantage. However, these trials clearly failed to utilize optimal therapies: suboptimal trials yield suboptimal results. Encouraging data from large uncontrolled studies have now provided critical information regarding optimal trial design; a) Since primary tumor site has proved a significant predictive factor for response to treatment and survival, future trials must include sufficient numbers of patients for detailed site-by-site analyses, and b) radical surgery may be omitted without compromising survival by using initial chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy for advanced laryngeal cancer.
authors.affiliation: Cellular Chemotherapy Laboratory, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London, England.
authors.forename: B T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Price
mesh_terms: D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000532:radiotherapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000532:radiotherapy; D006801:Humans; D007822:Laryngeal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic