Seventeen patients with heavily pretreated head and neck squamous cell carcinoma were submitted to a combination of 5-fluorouracil, 500 mg/m2 on days 1–4, and cis-platin, 50 mg/m2 on day 5, repeated every 21 days. Before administration of 5-fluorouracil, N5,N10-methyl-tetrahydrofolate, 200 mg/m2 i.v., was given. Only 1 partial response and 4 stable disease were observed, and the median survival of the entire group was 5 months. Although all patients had been heavily pretreated and a considerable percentage (6/17, 35.2 %) of these showed resistance to first-line therapy, this combination seems to be ineffective as second-line therapy in head and neck cancer.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
CarterS.K.: The chemotherapy of head and neck cancer.Semin. Oncol., 4: 413–424, 1977.
2.
CreaganE., FlemingT., EdmonsonJ., IngleJ., WoodsJ.: Cyclophosphamide, adriamycin, and cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (II) in the treatment of patients with advanced head and neck cancer.Cancer, 47: 240–244, 1981.
3.
DeckerD.A., DrelichmanA., JacobsJ., HoschnerJ., KinzieJ., LohJ.J., WeaverA., Al-SarrafM.: Adjuvant chemotherapy with cis-diamminodichloroplatinum II and 120 - hour infusion 5-fluorourical in stage III-IV squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.Cancer, 51: 1353–1355, 1983.
4.
JacobsC.: Use of methotrexate and 5-FU for recurrent head and neck cancer.Cancer Treat. Rep., 66: 1925–1928, 1982.
5.
KishJ., DrelichmanA., WeaverA., JacobsJ., BergsmanK., Al-SarrafM.: Clinical trial of CDDP and 5-FU infusion as initial treatment for advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the H & N.Cancer Treat. Rep., 66: 471–474, 1982.
6.
KishJ., DrelichmanA., WeaverA., JacobsJ., BergsmanK., Al-SarrafM.: Cisplatinum and 5-fluorouracil infusion in patients with recurrent and disseminated epidermoid of the head and neck.Proc. AACR and ASCO, C750, 1982.
7.
MachoverD., SchwarzenbergL., GoldschmidtE., MissetJ.L., MaralR., JasminC., MathéG.: Treatment of advanced colorectal and gastric adenocarcinoma with 5-FU combined with high dose folinic acid.Proc. AACR and ASCO, C131, 1982.
8.
OkenM.M., CreechR.H., TormeyD.C., HortonJ.: Toxicity and responsive criteria of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group.Am. J. Clin. Oncol., 5: 649–655, 1982.
9.
RossoR., MerlanoM., ConteP.F., ScarpatiD., BarbieriA.: Combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy for squamous cell carcinoma of stage III-IV head and neck cancer.2nd Europ. Conf. on Clin. Onc., Abst. 14–07, Amsterdam, 1983.
10.
TannockI., SutherlandD., OsobaD.: Failure of short-course multiple drug chemotherapy to benefit patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer.Cancer, 49: 1358–1361, 1982.
11.
ViettiT., CoulterD., ValerioteF.: Interval and sequence dependent lethal combination with other agents.Proc. AACR and ASCO, 20, 202, 1979.
