Results of Treatment of Locoregionally Advanced Head and Neck Cancer by Radiotherapy with or without Chemotherapy

Locally advanced tumors in the head and neck region are malignancies extended from their primary location with no distant metastasis. The main aim of this research was to assess whether the addition of chemotherapy to radiotherapy was able to increase the locoregional control of advanced squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of head and neck in a cancer referral center.

In this cohort study, 215 patients with locoregionally advanced head and neck carcinoma (stages III or IV) who had received conventional radiotherapy (60-70 Gy in 35 fractions) were evaluated. 92 patients had received chemoradiation and 123 patients had received radiotherapy alone. Demographic data was collected from the patient's records. The two groups were compared for local recurrence at each site.

Rates of local recurrence in the radiotherapy and chemoradiation groups were not significantly different (P = 0.100). However, in paitients who did not undergo surgery, chemoradiation was superior to radiotherapy. Moreover, gender, site of tumor, and tumor grade were significantly related with disease recurrence (P = 0.019).

Our findings showed that adding chemotherapy to conventional radiotherapy may be able to increase the locoregional control of SCC in patients who do not undergo surgery. These findings help improve currently practiced SCC therapeutic strategies.