Cruz JJ et al. - In a review of induction chemotherapy in the treatment of locally advanced head and neck cancer (HNC), discussion centers around the currently available data that support the design of these clinical trials as well as the future role of new agents in this clinical situation Methods
The standard of care for most clinicians is a multidisciplinary treatment with concomitant chemotherapy plus radiotherapy (CRT)
Retrospective studies have shown that in pts treated with CRT there was a relative increase in systemic relapse due to a lack of systemic control
Results
Renewed interest has appeared for the incorporation of induction chemotherapy in the treatment of locally advanced HNC
New combination regimens with taxanes have been shown to be more active than the classical cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil induction regimen
For these reasons, ongoing trials are comparing induction chemotherapy followed by chemoradiotherapy with chemoradiotherapy alone
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