Oral and pharyngeal cancer: combined approach for multimodal therapy

Five-year results in 60 oral and pharyngeal cancer patients treated with combined approach chemoradiotherapy (39 patients) and chemoradiotherapy plus lymph node surgery (21 patients) are reported. Complete remission (CR) was achieved in 16/39 (41%) patients treated with chemoradiotherapy alone, and in 16/21 (76%) patients who had chemoradiotherapy plus surgery. The number of CR was statistically (chi-square test) higher (p less than 0.025) in the second group. The 5-year actuarial survival was 39.7% in the group of patients treated with chemoradiotherapy plus surgery. After 5 years 53% of the patients who reached CR are living free of disease in the first group and 76% in the second group.