[Combination chemotherapy (BEAM regimen) for head and neck cancer]

Twenty-eight patients with head and neck cancer were treated with a combination of bleomycin, cyclophosphamide, adriamycin, and methotrexate (BEAM regimen), consisting cyclophosphamide 600 mg/body and adriamycin 40 mg/body on day 1, bleomycin 15 mg/body and methotrexate 20 mg/body on days 1 and 5. Dose modifications were performed according to patient's conditions. Of 18 evaluable patients, 3 patients showed a complete response and 3 patients showed partial response with an overall response rate of 33.3%. In this study, the patients who had already been treated with surgery, radiotherapy, or chemotherapy produced good results. The median duration of response was 4.0 months in the complete responders, and 1.0 month in the partial responders. The median survival was 12.7 months in the complete responders 1.4 months in the partial responders, and 5.6 months in non-responders. The most frequent major toxic effects were leukopenia (66.7%), nausea (60%), and alopecia (57.3%) in the patients receiving the maximum dose of the drugs. Careful monitoring of patients is imperative during this treatment.