Abstract
In our department, 109 patients with advanced or recurrent head and neck cancer were treated with chemotherapy alone for the past 11 years. Only 3. 3% of the patients survived for 5 years. It is quite difficult to get 5-year survivors with chemotherapy alone for unresectable hypopharyngeal cancer. However, we can expect a prolongation of life and an improvement in quality of life with chemotherapy.
From clinical experience, we recognized several combinations in which noncross-resistance was observed. They include UFT + BM therapy (bleomycin, mitomycin C), UFT-M therapy (UFT, mitomycin C) + CP therapy (cisplatin, peplomycin), VMB therapy (vincristine, methotrexate, bleomycin) +CP therapy, VMBM therapy (vincristine, methotrexate, bleomycin, mitomycin C) + cisplatin, etc. English and Japanese literature in terms of chemotherapy for hypopharyngeal cancer was also reviewed. At present, we recommend noncross-resistant sequential chemotherapy consisting of VMP therapy (vincristine, methotrexate, peplomycin) or VDMP therapy (vindesine, methotrexate, peplomycin) and cisplatin containing regimen like CP therapy or cisplatin+5-fluorouracil.
