The CancerWeb Report, What's New In Cancer: May, 1996
Head and Neck Cancer

• Docetaxel - The new relative of taxol, docetaxel, was used by doctors at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston, in 31 patients with head and neck cancers. They employed one-hour infusions once every 21 days, achieving 13% complete and 29% partial responses; a further 23% had no progression of their disease. The limiting side effect was reduction in white blood cell count and accompanying fever in 53%. Some patients also experienced edema, hair loss, peripheral neuropathy, diarrhea, and vomiting. Pretreatment with appropriate medication could lessen these side-effects. (Dreyfuss, J Clin Oncol 14:1672, 1996)

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• Alternating radiotherapy and chemotherapy - Results of a randomized trial of alternating radiotherapy and chemotherapy versus radiotherapy alone, undertaken at the Italian National Institute for Cancer Research in Genoa, confirmed that at five- years, the 3-year findings of the superiority of alternating treatment persisted. Clinical response rates were 43% and 22%, progression-free survivals were 21% and 10%, overall survivals were 24% and 10%, for the alternating treatment and radiotherapy only, respectively. (Merlano, J National Cancer Institute 88:583, 1996)