Studies on radiotherapy of head and neck cancer : Highlights of the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting

Abstract

Radiotherapy is an important treatment option in patients with head and neck. At this year's annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago, results of several studies on radiotherapy in patients with head and neck cancer were presented. All abstracts and presentations from this year's ASCO Annual Meeting on radiotherapy in patients with head and neck cancer were screened and the most interesting results selected for further review. The ORATOR trial compared primary surgery in patients with oropharyngeal carcinoma (OPSCC) with primary radiochemotherapy (RCT), particularly in terms of swallowing, for which superiority of RCT was demonstrated. Furthermore, results were presented on the question of optimal cisplatin dosage in patients receiving adjuvant RCT. Higher cisplatin doses showed better outcome. In patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), neoadjuvant chemotherapy before RCT is a comparable alternative to RCT followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. In addition, results of studies were presented that examined the tolerability of combining immunotherapy with radiotherapy in the first-line setting. The data presented show promising approaches for the further development of radiotherapy, particularly in terms of combined RCT as well as the optimal sequencing and dosing of systemic therapies.