Update on role of chemotherapy in head and neck squamous cell cancer

Abstract

Head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) is most commonly a tobaccorelated disease, affecting nearly 600,000 people worldwide each year. For decades, HNSCC has been treated successfully with multimodality treatments including, surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, though the 'perfect' treatment paradigm remains elusive. This review will discuss a number of clinical trials, comparing various combinations of chemotherapy and the settings in which they are most successful. Promising research and recent data on the combination of cytotoxic chemotherapy with new biological agents indicate chemotherapy plays a critical role in treatment of HNSCC and will only continue to improve.

Therapeutic implications of tumor free margins in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

“…Changing trends in the incidence of different HNSCC subtypes with a simultaneous decline in tobacco-associated and increase in human papillomavirus (HPV)-mediated carcinomas result in improvement in 5-year overall survival [ 4 ]. A multimodal treatment, consisting of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, has proved to be successful for most cases [ 5 ]. However, there are still controversies when establishing specific guidelines for treatment options [ 5 ].…”

“…A multimodal treatment, consisting of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, has proved to be successful for most cases [ 5 ]. However, there are still controversies when establishing specific guidelines for treatment options [ 5 ]. Surgical resection, usually gold standard for treating patients with HNSCC, aims to completely resect the tumor and simultaneously preserve the organ, this way keeping the individuals’ quality of life and improving the overall survival rate (OS) at the same time [ 6 ].…”

Palliative weekly chemotherapy along with cetuximab in recurrent and metastatic head and neck cancers: A retrospective analysis

“…[4] The standard approach to first-line treatment of this disease in patients with good performance status has been to use a platinum-based doublet regimen with either 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or a taxane. [5,6] With advent of targeted therapy, combination of antiepidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) agents with chemotherapy has changed the paradigms of management.…”

The chemopreventive and clinically used agent curcumin sensitizes HPV-but not HPV+HNSCC to ionizing radiation, in vitro and in a mouse orthotopic model

“…The current standard of care for advanced stage HNSCC utilizes combinations of radiation and cisplatin. [14][15][16]55 Recent Nevertheless, there are a number of purported target proteins that appear to be relevant to the pharmacologic properties of curcumin. 27,28 Curcumin-dependent inhibition of NFκB signaling, via inhibition of IκB-kinase, has been shown to play a direct role in the antiproliferative effects observed in a wide range of human cancers, 28 including HNSCC.…”