[Multidisciplinary treatment of the head and neck cancer--FAR therapy and its modification and application]

Treatment of the head and neck cancer has surprisingly developed in the last decade. The most possible reasons were the development of the more effective anticancer drugs and new combination therapy including immunotherapy. FAR therapy, which was applied to the head and neck cancer in our clinic since 1972, was a combination of vitamin A, 5-FU and radiation. We have already reported the results and the problems of FAR therapy. But, recently we have developed the clinical application of vitamin A to the chemotherapy so as to overcome the resistance of the tumor cells to the anticancer drugs. In this paper, vitamin A was focused as a potentiating agent and the possible material to overcome the resistance to the anticancer drugs.