[Chemoradiotherapy for patients with advanced head and neck cancer]

At diagnosis of head and neck cancer, over half of all patients show advanced stages. Cure rates for patients with advanced head and neck carcinomas remain low. Because of the poor outcome of unresectable patients with head and neck cancer after radiation therapy alone, concomitant chemoradiotherapy has been used for these advanced cases in order to improve locoregional and systemic tumor control. On the other hand, a recent treatment modality for resectable head and neck cancer has a new goal to preserve organ functions, i.e., speech, swallowing and appearance, which are affected by surgical resection. For both of these reasons, various concomitant administrations of chemotherapy and radiotherapy have been applied for advanced tumors. In this paper, the clinical results of the past and present reports are reviewed and summarized in terms of chemoradiotherapy using single and combination chemotherapeutic drug therapy. In conclusion, some aggressive concurrent chemoradiotherapy trials suggest an improved locoregional control rate, prolonged disease-free interval and a better overall survival rate.