A nontoxic adjuvant treatment for advanced head and neck cancer

A variety of adjuvant chemotherapy programs have been described for advanced head and neck cancer. The protocol described herein is nontoxic and particularly appropriate for patients with advanced tumors who cannot, because of severe pulmonary disease, tolerate bleomycin sulfate. Eighty percent of patients treated with this combination responded with more than 50% tumor shrinkage. Chemotherapy was followed by either surgery, radiation therapy, or both. Long-term control with this combined modality therapy was better in oral cavity and oropharyngeal lesions than in tumors from the hypopharynx.