Combined radiotherapy and bleomycin for advanced head and neck cancers: results of a phase I pilot study

Forty-two patients with inoperable stage III or IV head and neck epithelial tumors were entered in a phase I pilot study to evaluate the toxicity and efficacy of combined radiotherapy and bleomycin for advanced head and neck cancers. Twenty-three patients (52%) achieved complete remissions and 18 patients (42%) had greater than 50% regression. Most patients tolerated bleomycin at a dose of 5 units twice a week, with a full course of radiotherapy delivered at 1809 rads/day, 5 days/week. Although the complete remission rate appears to be higher than with radiotherapy alone and 13 of the 23 complete remissions (57%) lasted greater than 1 year, methods of prolonging the duration of remission need to be developed.