Chemoradiotherapy with low dose cisplatin for the treatment of advanced pharyngeal cancer

For the advanced pharyngeal cancer, aggressive surgery and/or radiotherapy has been used as the standard treatment option. Despite this treatment, local and regional recurrences have been common and less than 30% of patients alive 5 or more years. The aggressive surgery often impaired speech and swallowing, produced low quality of life. Chemoradiotherapy produces excellent initial response and the possibility of organ function preservation. For the surgically resectable cases, cisplatin 3 mg/m2 or 5 mg/body per day plus simultaneous conventional radiotherapy were used. This regimen was well tolerated. The degree of mucous reaction was similar to the conventional radiotherapy alone. The salvage surgery had been done satisfactory without major complication. For the surgically unresectable cases, cisplatin 3 mg/m2 and 5-fluorouracil 150 mg/m2 per day plus simultaneous conventional radiotherapy were used. This regimen showed marginally mucous reaction but also well tolerated. We concluded that these treatment options are effective for the advanced pharyngeal cancer. (author)