Abstract
Treatments for recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), which cannot be treated with curative surgery or radiotherapy, have not been established. We assessed the effects of two chemotherapy regimens, i. e., PFML chemotherapy (cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil, methotrexate and leucovin) or/and TPF chemotherapy (docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil) for patients with recurrent HNSCC. Fourteen patients, including 4 with an affected nasopharynx, 2 mesopharynx, 8 hypopharynx, 5 larynx and 3 other locations were enrolled. Twenty-one patients had stage IV disease at the time of the reccurence. Distant metastasis was seen in 15 patients. Two patients were treated with PFML chemotherapy alone, 11 were treated with TPF chemotherapy alone, and 9 were treated with both PFML and TPF regimens. One of the 22 cases showed a complete response, 4 cases showed a partial response, 8 no change, and 9 showed progressive disease. The overall response rate was 22.7%. The 1-year and 2-year disease specific survival rates were 60.2% and 42.1%, respectively. The median survival time was 12.4 months. A survival benefit of the PFML and TPF regimens can be expected for cases with recurrent HNSCC.
