Neo-Adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with oral and oro-pharyngeal T3/T4 carcinomas

We presented in 1987, a randomized trial for neo-adjuvant chemotherapy before radiotherapy, called INSERM [1] trial, dealing with 14 patients with oral and oro-pharyngeal T3/T4 carcinomas. Then, we concluded that chemotherapy did not rise the number of remissions achieved after radiotherapy (about 50 % in each group); also, that chemotherapy was predictive of the short term result, as the patients responding to chemotherapy had four times more chances to achieve remission after radiotherapy than non-responders. Unfortunately, after remission, the evolution remains the same and disappointing, with only 2 out of 114 patients who survive, one in each group.