Abstract
Half of all patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) present with locally advanced disease. Despite the development of new treatment strategies, mortality rates have only improved over the last decade by 2.6% per year, and prognosis remains poor. Combined modality therapy offers the potential for organ preservation, particularly for tumors arising in the larynx, hypopharynx and oropharynx. Organ preservation with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) was first established in laryngeal carcinoma. Recent results of the laryngeal study, RTOG 9111, indicate that even though larynx preservation is improved with CRT compared to induction chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy alone, laryngectomy-free survival is the same. Future attentions should be focused not only on improving treatment efficacy, but also on efforts to minimize the long term toxicities of therapy for SCCHN, particularly because long term toxicities not only diminish quality of life, but seem to impact on survival. In the future, targeted therapies may be incorporated into combined modality therapy for SCCHN, offering the chance to enhance the anticancer effects of treatment without increasing toxicity. Improvements in radiotherapy techniques may also move the field forward. Finally, there is renewed interest in the role of induction chemotherapy as part of a sequential treatment approach for advanced SCCHN. If the current generation of studies evaluating sequential therapy is favorable, future studies incorporating targeted therapies into this platform will offer further potential for advancing the treatment of SCCHN.
Keywords: Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, chemoradiotherapy, sequential therapy
Current Cancer Drug Targets
Title: Recent Advances in Combined Modality Therapy for Locally Advanced Head and Neck Cancer
Volume: 7 Issue: 7
Author(s): Lori J. Wirth and Marshall R. Posner
Affiliation:
Keywords: Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, chemoradiotherapy, sequential therapy
Abstract: Half of all patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) present with locally advanced disease. Despite the development of new treatment strategies, mortality rates have only improved over the last decade by 2.6% per year, and prognosis remains poor. Combined modality therapy offers the potential for organ preservation, particularly for tumors arising in the larynx, hypopharynx and oropharynx. Organ preservation with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) was first established in laryngeal carcinoma. Recent results of the laryngeal study, RTOG 9111, indicate that even though larynx preservation is improved with CRT compared to induction chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy alone, laryngectomy-free survival is the same. Future attentions should be focused not only on improving treatment efficacy, but also on efforts to minimize the long term toxicities of therapy for SCCHN, particularly because long term toxicities not only diminish quality of life, but seem to impact on survival. In the future, targeted therapies may be incorporated into combined modality therapy for SCCHN, offering the chance to enhance the anticancer effects of treatment without increasing toxicity. Improvements in radiotherapy techniques may also move the field forward. Finally, there is renewed interest in the role of induction chemotherapy as part of a sequential treatment approach for advanced SCCHN. If the current generation of studies evaluating sequential therapy is favorable, future studies incorporating targeted therapies into this platform will offer further potential for advancing the treatment of SCCHN.
Export Options
About this article
Cite this article as:
Wirth J. Lori and Posner R. Marshall, Recent Advances in Combined Modality Therapy for Locally Advanced Head and Neck Cancer, Current Cancer Drug Targets 2007; 7 (7) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/156800907782418329
DOI https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/156800907782418329 |
Print ISSN 1568-0096 |
Publisher Name Bentham Science Publisher |
Online ISSN 1873-5576 |
Call for Papers in Thematic Issues
Advances in Cancer Biomarkers and Potential Drug Targets: From Diagnosis to Therapy
Cancer biomarkers play a crucial role in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of cancer. They provide valuable information for cancer detection, risk assessment, treatment selection, and monitoring response to therapy. With advancements in molecular biology and high-throughput technologies, there has been an increasing interest in identifying and characterizing cancer biomarkers ...read more
Novel Therapeutic Approaches to Target Drug Resistant Tumors
With the development of disciplines such as chemical biology and molecular biology, the genes or proteins closely related to tumor occurrence and development have gradually become clear. Targeted therapies targeting these genes or proteins provide more effective methods for tumor treatment. Tumor targeted drugs generally only act on specific targets ...read more
ROLE OF IMMUNE AND GENOTOXIC RESPONSE BIOMARKERS IN TUMOR MICROENVIRONMENT IN CANCER DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT
Biological biomarkers have been used in medical research as an indicator of a normal or abnormal process inside the body, or of a disease. Nowadays, various researchers are in process to explore and investigate the biological markers for the early assessment of cancer. DNA Damage response (DDR) pathways and immune ...read more
Targeting the battlefield between host and tumor: basic research and clinical practice on reshaping tumor immune microenvironment
Immune system protects host against malignant tumors through effector cells and molecules. Cancer development and its response to therapy are regulated by inflammation, which either promotes or suppresses cancer progression. Chronic inflammation facilitates cancer progression and treatment resistance, whereas induction of acute inflammatory reactions often lead to anti-cancer immune responses. ...read more
- Author Guidelines
- Graphical Abstracts
- Fabricating and Stating False Information
- Research Misconduct
- Post Publication Discussions and Corrections
- Publishing Ethics and Rectitude
- Increase Visibility of Your Article
- Archiving Policies
- Peer Review Workflow
- Order Your Article Before Print
- Promote Your Article
- Manuscript Transfer Facility
- Editorial Policies
- Allegations from Whistleblowers
Related Articles
-
Quantitative Structure-Wavelength Relationship Modeling of Porphin -Derivative Photosensitizers
Combinatorial Chemistry & High Throughput Screening Moving Beyond VEGF for Anti-angiogenesis Strategies in Gynecologic Cancer
Current Pharmaceutical Design Tailored Angiogenesis Inhibition in Cancer Therapy: Respecting the Heart to Improve the Net Outcome
Current Signal Transduction Therapy Glycosyltransferases, Important Tools for Drug Design
Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry Bioplex Technology: Novel Synthetic Gene Delivery Pharmaceutical Based on Peptides Anchored to Nucleic Acids
Current Pharmaceutical Design Mass Spectrometry Data Analysis in the Proteomics Era
Current Bioinformatics Appropriate Use of Antibiotics for the Management of Respiratory Tract Infections
Infectious Disorders - Drug Targets Nasal Polyposis: An Overview of Differential Diagnosis and Treatment
Recent Patents on Inflammation & Allergy Drug Discovery Targeted Therapy in Colorectal Cancer: Current Status and Future Challenges
Current Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Synergisms Between Drugs and Physiologically-Patterned Weak Magnetic Fields: Implications for Neuropharmacology and the Human Population in the Twenty-First Century
Current Neuropharmacology Role of microRNA Deregulation in Breast Cancer Cell Chemoresistance and Stemness
Current Medicinal Chemistry Chemopreventive Properties of Tolfenamic Acid: A Mechanistic Review
Current Medicinal Chemistry Paraneoplastic Pemphigus: Autoimmune-Cancer Nexus in the Skin
Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry Pentoxifylline Use in Dermatology
Inflammation & Allergy - Drug Targets (Discontinued) Smart Biodegradable Nanoparticulate Materials: Poly-lactide-co-glycolide Functionalization with Selected Peptides
Current Nanoscience Biosynthetic and Metabolic Alterations in Cancer Growth
Current Angiogenesis (Discontinued) Tumor Immune Escape Mechanisms that Operate During Metastasis
Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Inflammation and Antiangiogenesis in Cancer
Current Medicinal Chemistry Interfering with Protein-Protein Contact: Molecular Interaction Maps and Peptide Modulators
Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry Simultaneous Quantification of Paclitaxel Prodrug and its Released Paclitaxel in Human Plasma by UPLC-MS/MS
Current Pharmaceutical Analysis