Long-term results of treatment of patients with metronidazole and protracted radiotherapy: a base for comparative randomized studies with hypoxic radiosensitizers

From 1974 to 1978, a pilot study was undertaken in the Academic Hospital of the Free University of Amsterdam to evaluate the use of hypoxic radiosensitizer metronidazole given with conventional protracted radiotherapy. All patients had advanced malignancies, 70 head and neck cancers being available for long-term evaluation. Only four showed evidence of (reversible) neuropathy, including one patient with two attacks of reversible psychosis. With a minimum follow-up period of 30 months, the local control rates of some of these tumors appear to be encouraging and higher (54%) than usually obtained, without evidence of any long-term enhanced late effect of radiation or carcinogenesis. Clinical benefit has been persistently reported from metronidazole from a number of centers. Reports on other hypoxic radiosensitizers are not always clearly encouraging to date. In view of these facts, three-armed studies appear desirable and are being pursued