Adjuvant chemoimmunotherapy in advanced lesions of the head and neck.

Growth of malignant tumors of the head and neck has been associated with progressive impairment of immunologic activity. Successful control of disease has been shown to reverse this defect. Preliminary results of a nonrandomized trial reduced recurrence of head and neck cancer for a median time of 11.5 months in eight of 10 patients who received chemoimmunotherapy adjuvant to surgical resection or radiation treatment. The number of patients in the series was small and the followup time too short to determine the length of effectiveness for this treatment. Based on these results, a new protocol has been initiated to randomize patients with advanced T3 and T4 lesions into groups for comparison of adjuvant chemotherapy alone with adjuvant chemoimmunotherapy.