2014 Volume 40 Issue 4 Pages 490-496
Purpose: To assess the safety profile and efficacy of chemotherapy with docetaxel plus cisplatin (DC) for recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer, we retrospectively reviewed the medical chart of the patients in our institution.
Patients and methods: From July 2008 to October 2012, twenty-four patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer were treated with chemotherapy with DC. DC was administered until disease progression or unacceptable toxicities. DC consisted of docetaxel (DTX) 60∼70 mg/m2 d1 and cisplatin (CDDP) 75∼80 mg/m2 d1.
Results: We identified 17 patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck excluding 3 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. We included these 17 patients in efficacy analysis. DC achieved response rate of 47% (complete response 18%, partial response 29%) and median overall survival and progression free survival were 390 days and 188 days, respectively. All of the 24 patients were included in safety analysis. Following grade 3/4 adverse events, including neutropenia (79%), anemia (17%), febrile neutropenia (FN, 33%), nausea (4%), anorexia (21%), stomatitis (4%) and diarrhea (17%) were observed. Of the eight patients complicated with FN, five patients suffered from FN at first course of DC. Twelve patients (50%) needed dose reduction of DC due to toxicities and 2 patients (8%) had to discontinue DC due to unacceptable toxicities. No treatment related death was observed.
Conclusion: Considering that this study was small sample sized retrospective analysis, chemotherapy with DC appeared to have at least similar efficacy to those reported previously. Because of the high incidence of FN, we have to take care of prevention and management of FN.
