Induction chemotherapy for oral cancers in a non-compliant patient population

Abstract

A protocol of induction combination chemotherapy followed by surgery was applied to a group of patients with previously untreated oral carcinoma. Thirty-six patients were entered prospectively into the study. Only 16 eventually underwent surgical treatment as planned. The most frequently encountered reason for failure to go through with the treatment protocol was the patient's refusal to undergo operation, often when there was clinical response following chemotherapy. It was likely that the response to chemotherapy which reduced the tumours' sizes changed the minds of some patients, deciding that they could escape surgery. As a result, the advantage of pre-operative chemotherapy on survival is not clearly established yet; therefore, it is not recommended for non-compliant patient populations such as ours.