[A case of mesopharyngeal carcinoma that showed a complete response to induction chemotherapy]

A 55-year-old male with a mesopharyngeal carcinoma (squamous cell carcinoma) T3N3N0 and a pulmonary carcinoma (adenocarcinoma) T3N2M0 was treated with induction chemotherapy, consisting of cisplatin (100 mg/body), bleomycin (30 mg/body), and methotrexate (40 mg/body), that was followed by a radical neck dissection of the cervical metastatic lesion. After two courses of chemotherapy, both the primary and nodal lesions of the mesopharyngeal carcinoma showed a complete response and, histologically, no evidence of any viable tumor cells remained. The patient died, however, due to the pulmonary carcinoma two years and seven months after his first treatment. An autopsy revealed no evidence of the squamous cell carcinoma. In this case, the squamous cell carcinoma of the mesopharynx and the cervical lymph nodes showed a radically good response to treatment by chemotherapy.