Three-combo Chemotherapy Improves the Chance to Retain Voice Box for Patients With Laryngeal Cancer

Approximately two-thirds of patients with advanced local larynx or hypopharynx cancer who received docetaxel in addition to the standard treatment of cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (PF) were able to retain their voice boxes in a recent French study.

Patients in the randomized controlled trial who received docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (TPF) during induction chemotherapy to treat larynx cancer were more likely to retain larynx function than patients treated with the standard PF regimen alone, according to the authors of “Randomized Trial of Induction Chemotherapy with Cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil with or without Docetaxel for Larynx Preservation,” published in the March 24 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Gilles Calais, M.D., et al, conducted a randomized controlled trial with 231 patients that assessed whether the commonly prescribed PF regimen followed by radiation was more or less effective than the TPF dosing. It proved demonstrably more effective, with the larynx preservation rate 70.3 percent for the TPF-treated patients, with 80 percent responding to therapy. The preservation rate for the PF-treated patients was 57.5 percent, with 59.2 percent responding to therapy, according to the study. However, patients treated with TPF presented with more severe infections.

Calais, et al., concluded that the TPF treatment regimen was superior and that more patients with locally advanced cancers of the larynx and hypopharynx could avoid a total laryngectomy.

The study can be found online at nci.oxfordjournals.org.