A new study found that including surgery treatment after chemotherapy can be more effective in treating tongue cancer.
Researchers from the University of Michigan led by Dr. Douglas Chepeha recruited 19 patients diagnosed with advanced oral cavity cancer. As part of the study, all of them were given a dose of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. This combined treatment resulted to a 50 percent cancer size reduction.
Those who did not improve after chemotherapy underwent surgery instead of radiation therapy. After recovering from surgery, that was the time they received radiation therapy.
The combined treatment was regarded unsuccessful which made the researchers call off the research. Only 3 out of 10 patients of the first group became cancer-free while only two of those who had surgery became cancer-free. The researchers monitored them for five years.
After careful analysis what went wrong, the researchers decided to change the treatment. They decided to have the same participants undergo a combination of surgery and advanced reconstruction followed by radiation therapy.
Although promising, experts are still cynical because this study is the opposite of the treatment used for patients with larynx cancer. Those with the disease are usually given chemotherapy first and then the doctors will determine if the patient will undergo surgery based on the results of the chemotherapy. However, researchers defended that their new treatment combinations give patients’ higher survival rate compared to other treatments.
Chepeha explained to WebMD: “The mouth is a very sensitive area. We know the immune system is critical in oral cavity cancer, and chemotherapy suppresses the immune system. If a person is already debilitated, they don't do well with chemotherapy. Despite the proven success of this strategy in laryngeal cancer, induction chemotherapy should not be an option for oral cavity cancer, and in fact it results in worse treatment-related complications compared to surgery.”
Although the researchers were able to establish the connection between undergoing surgery and receiving radiation therapy afterwards and its influence on the diagnosis of the patient, the study has no clear implications of the variable’s cause and effect relationship.
The study was published in the December 26 issue of JAMA Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery.
