Objective: Curative synchronous double primary cancers of the head and neck and the esophagus (CSC-HE) are frequently detected, but a standard treatment remains to be established. We studied the clinical course to explore appropriate treatment strategies.
Methods: We retrospectively studied consecutive 33 patients who had CSC-HE. The disease stage was classified into 4 groups: group A, early head and neck cancer (HNC) and early esophageal cancer (EC); group B, early HNC and advanced EC; group C, advanced HNC and early EC; and group D, advanced HNC and advanced EC. As induction chemotherapy, the patients received 3 courses of TPF therapy (docetaxel 75mg/m2 on day 1, cisplatin 75mg/m2 on day 1, and 5-fluorouracil 750mg/m2 on days 1-5) at 3-week intervals. The clinical courses and treatment outcomes were studied according to the disease stage of CSC-HE.
Results: The disease stage of CSC-HE was group A in 1 patient (3%), group B in 9 patients (27.3%), group C in 3 patients (9.1%), and group D in 20 patients (60.6%). The median follow-up was 26months, and the 2-year overall survival rate was 67.4%. In groups A, B, and C, the 2-year overall survival rate was 83.3%. In group D, the 2-year overall survival rate was 62.6%. Ten of 20 patients in group D received induction chemotherapy with TPF, and 6 patients were alive and disease free at the time of this writing.
Conclusion: The treatment outcomes of patients with CSC-HE were relatively good. TPF induction chemotherapy might be an effective treatment for patients with advanced HNC and advanced EC.
Keywords: Esophageal cancer; Head and neck cancer; Induction chemotherapy; Synchronous double primary cancers; TPF chemotherapy.
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