title: Combined cisplatinum and laser thermal therapy for palliation of recurrent head and neck tumors.
abstract: In recent years endoscopically controlled laser-induced thermal therapy (LITT) has been increasingly accepted as a minimally invasive method for palliation of advanced or recurrent head and neck or gastrointestinal cancer. Previous studies have shown that adjuvant chemotherapy can potentiate endoscopic laser thermal ablation of obstructing tumors leading to improved palliation in advanced cancer patients. Eight patients with recurrent head and neck tumors volunteered to enroll as part of an ongoing phase II LITT clinical trial, and also elected to be treated with systemic chemotherapy (cisplatin, 80 mg/m(2)) followed 24 h later by palliative laser thermal ablation. Laser treatments were repeated in patients with residual disease or recurrence for a total of 27 LITT sessions. Four of the 8 patients treated with laser thermal chemotherapy remained alive after a median follow-up of 12 months. Of the 12 tumor sites treated, complete responses were located in the oral cavity (3), oropharynx (1), hypopharynx (1), maxillary sinus (1), and median survival for these patients was 9.5 months. This initial experience with cisplatinum-based laser chemotherapy indicates both safety and therapeutic potential for palliation of advanced head and neck cancer but this must be confirmed by longer follow-up in a larger cohort of patients.
authors.affiliation: Division of Head and Neck Surgery UCLA School of Medicine 62-132 CHS, 10833 Le Conte Avenue Los Angeles CA 90024-1624 USA.
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Paiva
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Saxton
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Blackwell
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Buechler
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Calcaterra
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Castro