Department of Solid Tumor Oncology, Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA.
Lancet Oncol. 2012 Jul;13(7):e318-23. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(12)70119-5. Epub 2012 Jun 28.
Chemotherapy has assumed an important role in multidisciplinary management of patients with head and neck cancer. Much recent progress is attributable to successful design and careful implementation of clinical trials. In addition to showing the efficacy of chemotherapy, trials also instruct about how to improve experimental design so that we can make the most of what is learned. In this Personal View, several important studies in head and neck cancer are reviewed, with focus on issues raised by their design, potential solutions to these difficulties, and challenges that future investigations of this disease will face.
化疗在头颈部癌症的多学科综合治疗中占据重要地位。近期取得的诸多进展都归因于临床试验的精心设计和成功实施。临床试验不仅展示了化疗的疗效，还为改进试验设计提供了指导，以便我们充分利用已取得的成果。本文以设计相关问题为重点，对几项头颈部癌症的重要研究进行了回顾，探讨了这些研究设计带来的问题、可能的解决方案以及该疾病未来研究所面临的挑战。
