The addition of docetaxel (Taxotere) to an initial chemotherapy regimen for inoperable head and neck cancers reduced mortality by nearly 30 percent over three years following treatment compared to the standard two-drug combination, researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston will report at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting in Atlanta.
The survival advantage emerged from an international clinical trial of more than 500 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck treated with a sequential regimen that included induction chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy, explains Marshall R. Posner, MD, director of head and neck oncology at Dana-Farber.
"This changes the standard of care for chemotherapy and radiation for head and neck cancer in this country," says Posner.
In recent years, Posner and colleagues at Dana-Farber have developed a multi-modality therapy for inoperable, locally advanced head and neck cancers that can reduce the need to remove critical organs while giving the patient good odds of survival. The first phase is induction chemotherapy with a combination of drugs followed by simultaneous fractionated radiation therapy and weekly treatment with carboplatin chemotherapy. Patients then have surgery if needed.