[Critical remarks on chemotherapy of malignant tumors of the head and neck].

Chemotherapy of head and neck carcinomas has been the subject of 111 relevant publications reporting on more than 4,500 patients in the international literature of the past five years. Results of similar treatment protocols have been grouped together and tumour remission and survival time determined. Chemotherapy did not result in cure or increased survival times, neither alone nor in combination with irradiation nor when applied as adjuvant treatment. Inductive chemotherapy may result in producing a favourable effect on the prognosis of advanced carcinomas. The beneficial character of palliative chemotherapy is a generally accepted fact. Improvement of treatment results will be achieved only via centrally coordinated, randomised and prospective studies as well as by intensive fundamental research.