Consistent with the increasing rate of head and neck cancers among elderly adults, there has been an increase in the rate of those receiving nonsurgical treatments to maintain their function and quality of life. However, various problems, such as poor tolerance to chemoradiotherapy-related toxicity, are of greater concern in elderly adults than in younger individuals. In this review, we describe adverse events that should be particularly noted in elderly patients and provide an overview of countermeasures in nonsurgical treatments. We mainly focus on cisplatin-based chemoradiotherapy-the primary treatment for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Furthermore, we review the molecular targeted drugs and immune checkpoint inhibitors for elderly patients with HNSCC. Although the number of older patients is increasing worldwide, clinical trials aimed at determining the standard of care typically enroll younger or well-conditioned elderly patients. There is still very little evidence for treating elderly HNSCC older patients, and the question of optimal treatment needs to be explored.
Keywords: cisplatin; dose reduction; elderly; geriatric assessment; head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; immune checkpoint inhibitor; molecular-targeted drug.