title: Weekly Cisplatin-Based Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy for Treatment of Locally Advanced Head and Neck Cancer: a Single Institution Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The organ preservation approach of choice for the treatment of locally advanced head and neck cancers is concurrent chemoradiation with three weekly high doses of cisplatin. Although this is an efficacious treatment policy, it has high acute systemic and mucosal toxicities, which lead to frequent treatment breaks and increased overall treatment time. Hence, the current study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of concurrent chemoradiation using 40 mg/m2 weekly cisplatin.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a single institutional retrospective study including the data of 266 locally advanced head and neck cancer patients who were treated with concurrent chemoradiation using 40 mg/m2 weekly cisplatin from January 2012 to January 2014. A p-value of < 0.05 was taken to be significant statistically for all purposes in the study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of the study patients was 48.8 years. Some 36.1% of the patients had oral cavity primary tumors. The mean overall treatment time was 57.2 days. With a mean follow up of 15.2 months for all study patients and 17.5 months for survivors, 3 year local control, locoregional control and disease free survival were seen in 62.8%, 42.8% and 42.1% of the study patients. Primary tumor site, nodal stage of disease, AJCC stage of the disease and number of cycles of weekly cisplatin demonstrated statistically significant correlations with 3 year local control, locoregional control and disease free survival.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Concurrent chemoradiotherapy with moderate dose weekly cisplatin is an efficacious treatment regime for locally advanced head and neck cancers with tolerable toxicity which can be used in developing countries with limited resources.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiotherapy, GSL Cancer Hospital, GSL Medical College, Rajahmundry, India E-mail : drsaptarshi10@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Saptarshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.forename: Pamidimukkala Brahmananda
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: P Ravindra
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Surendra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Manam
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D059248:Chemoradiotherapy / Q000401:mortality*; D002945:Cisplatin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D002945:Cisplatin