[Effectiveness of cisplatin with continuous infusion of 5-fluorouracil in neoadjuvant chemotherapy of carcinoma of the oral cavity].

The effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimen utilizing cisdiaminodichloroplatinum (CDDP) with continuous 5-day infusion of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) was analyzed during the treatment of 23 patients with histologically established epidermoid carcinoma of the oral cavity. All but four patients were in clinical stage III or IV of the disease and seven of them had an inoperable tumor. No one had been treated previously. Complete response after three courses of the chemotherapy was obtained in 13 patients (56.5%) and partial response in 8 (34.8%). The overall response amounted to 91.3%. Only two tumors showed no response to the therapy after one and two courses respectively. The former patient did not continue the chemotherapy due to toxicity and the latter because of its minimal effect. During therapy the disease did not progress in any of the patients studied. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with CDDP and continuous 5-FU infusion lasting 120 hours was found to be both tolerable and an effective part of the complex management of oral cavity carcinoma without the risk of delaying subsequent definitive treatment. (Tab. 9, Ref. 18).