[Advanced carcinoma of the oropharynx: the value of induction chemotherapy before locoregional treatment. A retrospective study of 138 cases].

Induction chemotherapy in oropharynx carcinomas had demonstrated overall response rates of 80%, but no overall survival benefit have been reported. In order to determine the value of induction chemotherapy for these patients, we conducted a retrospective study: 86 patients were treated with chemotherapy (CT) and RT (group 1) and 52 patients were treated by radiotherapy (RT) alone (group 2). All patients had T3 or T4 tumors. CT used was cisplatinum based associated with bleomycin and vincristine or vindesine and actually with 5 fluoro-uracil. Objective response to the CT was observed for 34% patients. Five years actuarial survival rate was 18% for group 1 and 17% for group 2. Patterns of failure were identical in the 2 groups. A difference was observed only for patients with N3 nodes (24% 5 years survival rate in group 1 versus 6% in group 2) (P = 0.05). According to the histologic differentiation, the tumor site or the type of CT, no difference was observed. We concluded that this study failed to demonstrate an advantage for induction chemotherapy in advanced oropharynx carcinoma excepted for patients with N3 nodes.