Objective: Compared with radiotherapy alone, concurrent chemoradiotherapy significantly improves survival rates for patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the efficacy, toxicity and long-term prognosis of concurrent chemoradiotherapy with docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil chemotherapy.
Methods: A total of 140 patients were enrolled and evaluated. Patients were received two cycles of docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil chemotherapy (docetaxel [50 mg/m(2): Day 1], cisplatin [60 mg/m(2): Day 4] and continuous 5-fluorouracil [600 mg/m(2)/day: Days 1-5]) during definitive radiotherapy.
Results: The overall response rate was 97.1%. The 3 and 5-year overall survival rates were 83.3 and 79.2%, respectively. The 3 and 5-year disease-specific survival rates were 84.2 and 80.0%, respectively. Among patients with laryngeal or hypopharyngeal carcinoma, the 5-year laryngectomy-free survival rate was 64.9%.
Conclusions: Concurrent chemoradiotherapy with docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil showed excellent survival and organ preservation rates for the patients with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
Keywords: 5-fluorouracil; chemoradiotherapy; cisplatin; docetaxel; head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.