Cancer Treatment Today

Induction chemotherapy before chemoradiation is becoming standard for many types of head and neck cancer.

The role of chemotherapy and radiation for advanced head and neck cancer has evolved considerably over the last 20 years. Several studies, most prominently the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) study 91-11, which was undertaken in collaboration with the Head and Neck Intergroup and published in 2003, established the use of concurrent chemotherapy with radiation as the superior nonsurgical, larynx preservation strategy. The RTOG study demonstrated that patients with advanced laryngeal cancer receiving concurrent cisplatin and radiation had a better larynx preservation rate (84%) at a median follow-up of 3.8 years compared to that afforded either by radiation alone or by induction cisplatin/fluorouracil followed radiation (rates of 67% and 72%, respectively). This was confirmed by other studies.

Two large, randomized trials — the Veterans Affairs Laryngeal Cancer Study Group trial and a phase 3 trial conducted by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) — have demonstrated the benefit of induction chemotherapy with PF (100 mg/m2 of cisplatin on day 1 and 1000 mg/m2 of 5-FU by continuous infusion on days 1-5) with respect to organ preservation. In these trials, overall survival rates were similar in patients receiving either induction PF chemotherapy and radiation or surgery and radiation therapy. In patients with more advanced unresectable tumors, PF induction therapy has been shown to produce long-term survival benefits, with overall survival times in a subset of inoperable patients receiving chemotherapy of 21% at 5 years and 16% at 10 years compared with 8% and 6%, respectively, in patients not receiving chemotherapy. In a phase 3 trial of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with oropharyngeal cancer conducted by the French Groupe d’Etude des Tumeurs de la Tete et du Cou (GETTEC), the median overall survival time for patients with both resectable and unresectable tumors was 5.1 years when PF induction chemotherapy was followed by locoregional therapy vs 3.3 years for those who did not receive PF induction chemotherapy (P = .03).

Nonetheless, there have been strong and persistent undercurrents of interest in induction chemotherapy for patients with locoregionally advanced head and neck cancer.  The standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimen has consisted of a platinum agent and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), a regimen known as PF. More recently, the addition of a taxane such as docetaxel (or, less commonly, paclitaxel) to the PF regimen (a triple combination known as TPF) is emerging as a more effective and less toxic standard for induction chemotherapy. The potential for induction chemotherapy before concurrent treatment to improve survival, through patient selection or better disease control such as by reducing distant metastases, as well as to enhance larynx preservation while decreasing the morbidity of treatment, is of great interest. However, more data are needed before such sequential approaches, or as appears in this case, chemotherapy alone, can be promulgated as new treatment standards. The VA guidelines state: “Treatment options for stage III and IV (laryngela) patients include surgery plus postoperative radiation and induction chemotherapy followed by radiation”.
NCCN recommends both options, with induction or without and lsits this regimen for induction (CHEM-A, 1).

In regard to using Taxol and carboplatin instead of TPF, a number of phase II trials suggest that it is a well tolerated and effective approach. The Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) initially evaluated the combination of induction carboplatin and paclitaxel for two cycles followed by low-dose weekly concurrent chemotherapy with RT. They found a median survival time of 15.1 months, and the trial demonstrated the feasibility of this regimen]. A phase III trial, CALGB 39801, was then completed, in which all patients received low-dose weekly carboplatin and paclitaxel with concurrent RT to 66 Gy and were randomized to two cycles of induction chemotherapy. Both arms of that trial showed disappointing results, with a median survival time of 11–13 months, demonstrating that this was not an efficacious regimen.

Shao H. Huang et al., Oral cancer: Current role of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal. 2013 Mar; 18(2): e233–e240

Pignon JP, Ie Maitre A, Bourhis J, MACH-NC Collaborative Group: Meta-analyses of Chemotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer (MACH-NC). Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2007, 69(2 suppl):S112-114.

Hoebers FJP, Heemsbergen W, Balm AJ, van Zanten M, Schornagel JH, Rasch CR: Concurrent chemoradiation with daily low dose cisplatin for advanced stage head and neck carcinoma.
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nccn.org, head and neck cancer, 2016

SS Agarwala et al, Long-term outcomes with concurrent carboplatin, paclitaxel and radiation therapy for locally advanced, inoperable head and neck cancer  Ann Oncol (2007) 18 (7): 1224-1229

MICHELLE L. MIERZWA, MUKESH K. NYATI, MEREDITH A. MORGAN, THEODORE S. LAWRENCE, Recent Advances in Combined Modality Therapy  The Oncologist April 2010 vol. 15 no. 4 372-381

Akerley BW, Herndon J, Turrisi AT et al. Induction chemotherapy with paclitaxel and carboplatin followed by concurrent thoracic radiotherapy and weekly PC for patients with unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer: Preliminary analysis of a phase II trial by the CALGB [abstract 1915]. Proc Am Soc Clin Oncol 2000;19.

Vokes EE, Herndon J, Kelley MJ et al. Induction chemotherapy followed by concomitant chemoradiotherapy (CT/XRT) versus CT/XRT alone for regionally advanced unresectable non-small cell lung cancer: Initial analysis of a randomized phase III trial. J Clin Oncol 2004;22(14 suppl):7005.

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