Multimodality treatment in stage IV squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. A long-term follow-up.

We treated 114 patients with advanced inoperable head and neck cancer with a combined-modality protocol that included two cycles of chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy or three chemotherapy and in 18 patients with a radiosensitizing agent. At the beginning of the treatment all but one patient presented with a stage IV cancer. With a follow-up of 42-58 months, four patients are alive (three from the radiosensitizing group and one of the chemotherapy group). Complete response after the radiosensitizing agent correlated with superior prolonged disease-free survival in comparison to complete responses after chemotherapy at the level of p less than 0.009.