Recurrent squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck: Overview of current therapy and future prospects

Locoregional recurrence is the most common cause of failure after head and neck cancer surgery. It is a disease which causes significant morbidity esp ecially on speech and swallowing. There are many different treatments avail able including surgery, reirradiation and chemotherapy. However, none of th ese have produced any significant survival benefit. Because of this, there has been considerable interest in the development of new biological therapi es such as gene therapy and immunotherapy for this disease. The objectives of this article are to provide an overview of the currently available thera pies for recurrent head and neck cancer including gene therapy and immunoth erapy. Prevention of recurrent disease by the detection and treatment of mi nimal residual disease is also discussed.