HEAD AND NECK-CANCER

This synthesis of the literature on radiotherapy for head and neck can cer is based on 424 scientific articles, including 3 meta-analyses, 38 randomized studies, 45 prospective studies, and 246 retrospective stu dies. These studies involve 79174 patients. The literature review show s that radiotherapy, either alone or in combination with surgery, play s an essential role in treating head and neck cancers. When tumors are localized, many tumor patients can be cured by radiotherapy alone and thereby maintain full organ function (1, 2). Current technical advanc ements in radiotherapy offer the potential for better local tumor cont rol with lower morbidity (3). This, however, will require more sophist icated dose planning resources. To further improve treatment results f or advanced tumors, other fractionation schedules, mainly hyperfractio nation, should be introduced (5). This mainly increases the demands on staff resources for radiotherapy. The combination of radiotherapy and chemotherapy should be subjected to further controlled studies involv ing a sufficiently large number of patients (4, 5).Interstitial treatm ent (in the hands of experienced radiotherapists) yields good results for selected cancers. The method should be more generally accessible i n Sweden. Intraoperative radiotherapy should be targeted for further s tudy and development.