Background: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is important for advanced laryngeal and hypopharyngeal carcinoma (LHC).Aims/objectives: To determine the efficacy and toxicity of the combination of docetaxel, nedaplatin, and 5-fluorouracil in induction treatment of advanced LHC.Material and methods: A total of 157 cancer patients were included. The primary endpoints of this study were overall response rate, pathological complete response rate, the safety of induction treatment, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS).Results: After two-cycle induction treatment, 17(10.8%) patients experienced complete remission, 76 (48.4%) experienced partial remission, 47 (30.0%) had stable disease, and 17 (10.8%) had progressive disease. The TNM stage decreased by two or more in 17 cases, decreased by one in 71 cases, increased in 15 cases, and did not change in 54 cases after induction treatment. Most of the adverse chemotherapy responses were alleviated by symptomatic management. After the induction treatment, 29 patients continued receiving chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy, and 112 underwent surgical management depending on tumor site followed by radiotherapy. The median PFS was 13.00 ± 2.10 months and the median OS was 14.20 ± 0.29 months.Conclusions and significance: Combination of docetaxel, nedaplatin, and 5-fluorouracil plays an important role in the comprehensive treatment of advanced LHC.
Keywords: Laryngeal carcinoma; TPF; hypopharyngeal carcinoma; neoadjuvant chemotherapy; surgery.