Current Clinical Trials

For lesions of the lip, anterior tongue, buccal mucosa, floor of mouth, retromolar trigone, upper gingiva, and hard palate, treatment will be dictated by the location and size of the recurrent lesion as well as prior treatment.[1,2]

Standard treatment options:

1. If radiation therapy was used initially, surgery is the preferred treatment.[3]
2. If surgery was used to treat the lesion initially, surgery,[3] radiation therapy, or a combination of these may be considered.
3. Although chemotherapy has been shown to induce responses, no increase in survival has been demonstrated.[4]

Treatment options under clinical evaluation:

• Because surgical salvage after primary treatment by radiation therapy and radiation therapy after primary surgery give poor results, clinical trials evaluating new chemotherapy drugs, chemotherapy and reirradiation, or hyperthermia should be considered.[5,6] Information about ongoing clinical trials is available from the NCI Web site ¹.

Check for U.S. clinical trials from NCI's PDQ Cancer Clinical Trials Registry that are now accepting patients with recurrent lip and oral cavity cancer ². The list of clinical trials can be further narrowed by location, drug, intervention, and other criteria.

General information about clinical trials is also available from the NCI Web site ³.

References

1. Harrison LB, Sessions RB, Hong WK, eds.: Head and Neck Cancer: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Philadelphia, Pa: Lippincott-Raven, 1999. 
   
   
2. Vikram B, Strong EW, Shah JP, et al.: Intraoperative radiotherapy in patients with recurrent head and neck cancer. Am J Surg 150 (4): 485-7, 1985.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
3. Wong LY, Wei WI, Lam LK, et al.: Salvage of recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma after primary curative surgery. Head Neck 25 (11): 953-9, 2003.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
4. Jacobs C, Lyman G, Velez-García E, et al.: A phase III randomized study comparing cisplatin and fluorouracil as single agents and in combination for advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. J Clin Oncol 10 (2): 257-63, 1992.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
5. Hong WK, Bromer R: Chemotherapy in head and neck cancer. N Engl J Med 308 (2): 75-9, 1983.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
6. Vokes EE, Athanasiadis I: Chemotherapy of squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck: the future is now. Ann Oncol 7 (1): 15-29, 1996.  [PUBMED Abstract]