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¹Department of Oncology, Research Institute of Clinical Medicine, Tbilisi-Gürcistan
²Department of Radiation Oncology, East Slovakia Institute of Oncology, Kosice-Slovakya
³Department of Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade-Serbia
⁴Department of Radiation Oncology, Hacettepe University, Ankara-Turkey DOI : 10.5505/tjo.2020.2247 Meta-analyses of chemotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer (MAC-HNC) showed that adding chemotherapy (CHT) to locoregional treatment improves the treatment outcome. However, it was observed only with concurrent administration of radiotherapy (RT) and CHT. Among many drugs used in this setting, cisplatin (CDDP) has most consistently been used as a single-agent with radical RT. The two most common administrations of CDDP included 100 mg/sqm every three weeks and 40 mg/sqm weekly, both during the course of RT. While a direct comparison of the two modes of CDDP administration in the definitive treatment of locally advanced squamous cell (SQC) HNC is basically lacking, recent summary brought somewhat conflicting results. Questions largely unexplored is the total CDDP dose deemed necessary when administered concurrently with radical RT. Subset analyses from various prospective randomized trials and meta-analyses seem to indicate that one may not need a total CDDP dose of significantly higher than 200 mg/sqm if at all higher than that, irrespective of the type of RT administered and seemingly unnecessary in HPV+ oropharyngeal cancer patients. Due to presumably lower but still effective threshold level of total CDDP given with RT may depend on other factors, such as frequency of CDDP administration or RT fractionation pattern and be closely interrelated with anticipated toxicity, researchers continue with their quest to find optimal approach in this setting. Large clinical trials should detect small differences between treatment options in an era when "old" but effective drugs still dominate the research arena of SQC HNC. Keywords : Cisplatin; chemotherapy; head and neck cancer; radiotherapy