Chemotherapeutic agents in head and neck malignancies
International Journal of Development Research
Chemotherapeutic agents in head and neck malignancies
Received 29th December, 2016; Received in revised form 17th January, 2017; Accepted 26th February, 2017; Published online 31st March, 2017
Copyright©2017, Saraswathi Gopal et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Recent advances in the management of patients with head and neck cancer point to an expanding role of chemotherapy, resulting in an increased involvement of the medical oncologist in the multidisciplinary care of these patients. A comprehensive review of the clinical trial data that have defined new standards of care and a detailed presentation of widely used chemotherapeutic regimens, including both cytotoxic and molecularly targeted agents, are presented. Information on human papilloma virus– associated squamous cell cancer of the head and neck is presented, and implications in the clinical management of this subgroup of patients based on the epidemiologic and pathologic characteristics are discussed. Chemoprevention has been an extensively studied strategy and continues to hold promise in the management of oral cancer. Many agents have been evaluated as possible chemo preventive agents including vitamin A and retinoids, beta carotene, vitamin E and dietery agents.
