Cisplatin Versus Carboplatin in Concomitant Chemoradiation in Patients with Locally Advanced Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

H ead and neck cancer accounts for more than 780,000 cases annually worldwide The main risk factors include tobacco and alcohol use and HPV virus infection. Most of patients present with late stage disease with the cure rates reach only 30%. Despite aggressive treatments with combinations of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, little progress has been made towards better outcomes. The care for patients with HNSCC has always been a trade-off between maximizing curative potential while minimizing therapy-related morbidity, and the stepwise advances in multidisciplinary care resulting in current standard therapeutic approaches that have resulted from decades of clinical research. The Meta Analysis of Chemotherapy on Head and Neck Cancer (MACH-NC) demonstrated that adding chemotherapy to radiotherapy in both definitive and adjuvant postoperative settings resulted in a 12% reduction in the risk of death from HNSCC, corresponding to an absolute improvement of 4% in 5 years survival.