Adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery and radiation for stage III and IV head and neck cancer.

Twenty consecutive patients with Stage III and IV squamous head and neck cancer were treated with surgery, radiation, and adjuvant multiagent chemotherapy. Eleven other patients who were referred for local recurrent disease were treated with second surgery or radiation and also with adjuvant chemotherapy. The actuarial survival of these two groups of patients combined (N = 31) was 87% at 6 years. Four patients died of recurrent cancer (two in each group), six of unrelated causes during a 6-year follow-up. The side effects of adjuvant chemotherapy were mild to moderate and of short duration.