Addition Of Chemotherapy To Radiotherapy Increases Survival For Patients With Advanced Head And Neck Cancer

Medical News Today
29th October 2009




Giving chemotherapy at the same time as radiotherapy to patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer (who have not had surgery) more than doubles their event-free survival to 2.2 years, compared with 1.0 years with radiotherapy alone. Wherever possible, chemo-radiation should become the standard for all patients with advanced head and neck cancer in whom surgery is not appropriate, concludes an Article published Online First in The Lancet Oncology.

People at highest risk of head and neck cancer are those who consume large amounts of alcohol or who smoke. There are about 7500 new cases diagnosed in the UK each year and 45 000 in the US, and the numbers are increasing. Standard traditional treatment for these patients involves radiotherapy with or without surgery, but recent research suggests that the addition of chemotherapy can increase survival. However, the best ways of combining these treatments is not clear, and some of the chemotherapy drugs can be toxic.