Table 2.

Single agents responses in metastatic and advanced head and neck cancer

Agent	Author	Phase	Dose	Overall response rates
Cisplatin	Campbell et al. [4]	III	100 mg/m2,4 weekly	40 %
	Morton et al. [5]	III	100 mg/m2, 4 weekly	13.3 %
Carboplatin	Eisenberger et al. [6]	I	60–80 mg/m2 daily (day 1–5), q 4–5 weekly	25 %
Methotrexate	Eisenberger et al. [7]	III	40 mg/m2/week	25 %
	Schornagel et al. [8]	III	40 mg/m2/week	16 %
5-Fu	Tapazoglou et al. [9]	II	1 g/m2, c.i.v.i. (Day 1–4), 3 weekly	72 %
Bleomycin	Morton et al. [5]	III	15 mg/m2 (Day 1–5)	13.6 %
Ifosfamide	Buesa et al. [10]	II	5–6.25 g/m2/day (Day 1–5), 4 weekly	28 %
	Cervellino et al. [11]	II	3.5 g/m2/day	42.7 %
Docetaxel	Couteau et al. [12]	II	100 mg/m2, 3 weekly	21 %
	Dreyfuss et al. [13]	II	100 mg/m2, 3 weekly	42 %
Paclitaxel	Gebbia et al. [14]	II	175 mg/m2 (3 h), 3 weekly	20 %
	Smith et al. [15]	II	250 mg/m2 (24 h), 3 weekly	35 %

Less well studies agents include Adriamycin, Vinblastine, Irinotecan, Cyclophosphamide, gemcitabine and hydroxyurea

Single agents responses vary from 15 to 30 %

Median duration of response is brief ie 2–3 months.

Overall survival not affected (average 6 months)