The role of neo-adjuvant chemotherapy for pharyngeal cancer

Chemotherapy prior to regional treatment which is called neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) has become a popular approach for incorporating chemotherapy into multimodality treatment. We studied retrospectively the role of NAC for nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal cancer patients. Fifty-one patients with stage IV nasopharyngeal carcinoma were entered this study. NAC was done for 24 patients. Eighteen patients showed response and their prognosis was better than that of patients treated with radiation alone. Nineteen patients with oropharyngeal cancer were studied. NAC were done for 50 patients. Five year survival rates were not different between patients with NAC and without NAC. But it was better for the patients who showed response with NAC than for the patients NAC was not effective. NAC is important for better prognoses in the multimodal treatment for the patient with chemosensitive tumor of pharynx. It also play a key role with radiotherapy for organ preservation of pharynx. (author)