Patterns of relapse in locally advanced head and neck cancer patients who achieved complete remission after combined modality therapy.

Relapse patterns in patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer who achieved complete remission were evaluated. After combined modality therapy with induction chemotherapy followed by surgery and/or radiotherapy, 71 of 103 patients were clinically free of disease. The 5-year recurrence rate was estimated at 51%, with a 39% local and 26% distant failure rate by 5 years. The factors significantly affecting the relapse patterns were: the site of the primary tumor (those with oral cavity lesions were more likely to fail locally, whereas hypopharynx patients had a higher risk of distant metastases); the type of definitive local treatment (those patients who received surgery and radiotherapy were at lower risk of pure local failure); TN Stage (patients with T4N3 or T3N3 tumor were at higher risk of both local and distant failure); and time to response and presence of oropharyngeal lesions (patients who had a longer period from diagnosis to final complete response [CR] and patients with oropharyngeal primaries were at higher risk for simultaneous local and distant failure). Type of chemotherapy, patient age, tumor differentiation, and response to induction chemotherapy did not significantly influence the patterns of relapse. A combined modality approach with induction chemotherapy, surgery, and/or radiotherapy does not seem to reduce the incidence of distant metastases significantly.