OBJECTIVES: I. Determine the rate of local regional recurrence at one year in patients with advanced head and neck cancer treated with boost radiotherapy and cisplatin. II. Determine the feasibility of treatment delivery, patient tolerance, and acute and late toxicities in these patients on this regimen. III. Determine the overall survival, disease free survival, and distant relapse rates of these patients on this regimen.
OUTLINE: Patients receive fractionated radiotherapy 1-2 times daily over 5 consecutive days for 6 weeks, and cisplatin IV over 1-2 hours on days 1 and 22. Patients may undergo salvage surgery if biopsy proven cancer remains more than 3 months after treatment. Patients are followed every 3 months for 2 years, every 6 months for 3 years, then annually until death.
PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 50-56 patients will be accrued for this study within 7 months.
