Toxicity and therapeutic compliance in RCT of HNSCC

Introduction Radiochemotherapy (RCT) represents a curative treatment option for advanced head and neck tumors adjuvant after surgery and as definitive therapy. The advancement of radiation technology and application of new radiation techniques such as intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) has had a significant impact on therapy-associated morbidity. Nevertheless, the combination of RT and cytotoxic, mostly platinum-based chemotherapy represents a therapeutic approach with high acute toxicity.

Methods A literature review of toxicity assessment of multimodality non-surgical therapies for HNSCC and a comparative retrospective analysis of own data on treatment compliance, treatment discontinuations and modifications and possible influence factors are performed.

Results Retrospective data analysis of a total of 426 patients with adjuvant or definitive therapy for HNSCC revealed a moderate number of complete therapy discontinuations. However, analysis of therapy modifications related to chemotherapy showed only a proportion of 69% of the examined therapies that were performed in the planned therapy regimen without dose reduction or change of substance.

Discussion Multimodal therapy of HNSCC continues to pose a challenge related to peri- and post-therapeutic toxicity. Careful therapy planning under analysis of possible risk factors may possibly prevent therapy discontinuation or prognosis-relevant therapy modifications here.

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Artikel online veröffentlicht:
24. Mai 2022