title: The role of low dose cisplatin plus 5-fluorouracil for treatment of recurrent and/or advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
abstract: To improve survival rate in advanced head and neck cancer, we scheduled 90 patients to receive low dose cisplatin plus 5-fluorouracil regimen as neoadjuvant(NAC), concurrent(CC), adjuvant(AC), and second line chemotherapy (SC) setting. Our regimen consisted of cisplatin (CDDP 5 mg/m2/1 hr infusion on days 1-5, 8-12, 15-19, 22-26) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU 200 mg/m2/24 hr infusion or oral administration of tegaful-uracil (UFT-E) 400 mg/body on days 1-28). The concurrent chemoradiotherapy consisted of conventional irradiation with 1.6-2.0 Gy/day on five days per week up to a total dose around 60Gy, and CDDP 3 mg/m2 by intravenous infusion over 1 hour plus 5-FU 150 mg/m2 by intravenous infusion over 24 hours per day on five days per week. For SC, 24 patients evaluable for response, 4 CR and 6 PR with RR of 42% were achieved. For NAC, 14 patients were evaluated for response, 2 CR and 7 PR were achieved. CC was indicated for locally unresectable cases. Of the 33 patients evaluable for response were 17 CR and 9 PR with RR of 79%. Dose limiting toxicities for chemotherapy were anemia and leukopenia and chemoradiotherapy was mucositis. Our treatment modality showed marginal toxicity and good response. Moreover, our regimen could be given in an outpatient setting safely so quality of life for patients was identical. We concluded that for advanced head and neck cancer, these treatment options were effective for second line and adjuvant setting. Chemoradiotherapy with this regimen also gave a impact for improving local control and survival period for locally unresectable cases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, National Defense Medical College, Saitama, Japan.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kohno
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kitahara
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanabe
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakanoboh
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawada
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shirasaka
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000740:Anemia / Q000139:chemically induced; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D002945:Cisplatin / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D005260:Female; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009325:Nausea / Q000139:chemically induced; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014840:Vomiting, Anticipatory / Q000209:etiology
chemical_list: D002945:Cisplatin; D005472:Fluorouracil