Re-irradiation with concurrent chemotherapy for recurrent head and neck cancer

5559 Background: Despite aggressive therapy, over 70% of locally advanced squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck (SCCHN) fail primary treatment. Salvage therapy with surgery, chemotherapy or brachytherapy alone or in combination has a 30–40% response rate, but few long-term survivors. Re-irradiation with concurrent chemotherapy for SCCHN has recently become a well established approach after two consecutive cooperative group studies were reported. Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) is a new and safer way to deliver radiation therapy. This retrospective review evaluated the potential benefit and toxicity using every other week IMRT with concurrent chemotherapy. Design: Thirty-seven patients with locally recurrent SCCHN were evaluated. All patients received re-irradiation with IRMT every other week with concurrent weekly carboplatin (median AUC= 2) or cisplatin (60–100 mg/m2) ± 5-FU (800–1000 mg/m2) or paclitaxel 175mg/m2 every three weeks. Patients received 6000 cGy at 200 cGy per fraction. Results: The median follow-up time was 12 months. The overall response rate was 75.7% with a complete response (CR) and partial response (PR) of 56.8% and 18.9%, respectively. Among complete responders, 33% recurred locally in a median time of 5 months. The Kaplan-Meier estimate of disease-free survival, progression-free survival, and overall survival at 48 months is 58%, 45%, and 28%, respectively. At the time of last follow-up, 51.4% of patients were still alive and 27.8% of patients had no evidence of disease. Grade 3 or 4 acute toxicities occurred in 20% of patients of which 13.3% were hematologic requiring either growth factors or delay in chemotherapy. No deaths occurred during the course of treatment. Long-term complications consisted of one patient with an esophageal stricture requiring repeated dilations, 2 patients with chronic dysphagia, and 2 patients developing a pharyngeal-cutaneous fistula, one of which died from a carotid blowout occurring 6 months after treatment. Conclusions: IMRT delivered every other week with concurrent platinum based chemotherapy produces good responses with only moderate toxicity in patients previously treated with radiation therapy for recurrent head and neck cancer. No significant financial relationships to disclose.