Vol.96 No.1 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 96 No. 1 January 2003
Chemotherapy for Stage IV Oral and
Oropharyngeal Cancer
Keiji Tabuchi and Isao Uemaetomari
(University of Tsukuba Hospital)
Tetsuro Wada, Masamitsu Senarita, Hideki Okubo,
Kazuhiko Takahashi and Akira Hara
(Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Tsukuba)
Present study evaluated the effect of chemotherapy on the survival of patients with advanced oral or oropharyngeal cancer. A total of 51 patients with a stage IV squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity or oropharynx (40 males and 11 females), treated at the University of Tsukuba Hospital from 1988 to 2001, were included in the study. Nineteen patients were treated by full-dose irradiation and 32 patients underwent surgery after radiotherapy. Chemotherapy consisting of cisplatin (50-80 mg/m2) or carboplatin (300 mg/m2) followed by administration of fluorouracil (500 mg/body) or peplomycin (5 mg/body) for 5 days was given to 25 patients. The effect of chemotherapy on disease-free survival rate was of slight significance (0.05＜p＜0.1). The approach using chemotherapy for advanced oral or oropharyngeal cancer warrants further investigation.
Key words : chemotherapy, squamous cell carcinoma, oral cavity, oropharynx