. 2020 Dec 29;22(1):240. doi: 10.3390/ijms22010240

Table 1.

Variation of anti-cancer drugs in HNSCC.

Category	Sub-Category	Drug Name	Mechanism	Main Site of Drug Metabolism	Main AEs	The Others of AEs	Clinical Research	Effectiveness
Cytotoxic anti-cancer agents	Platinum-based	Cisplatin	DNA crosslink	Kidney	Bone-marrow suppression, kidney dysfunction	Allergy, peripheral nerve disorder, nausea	Ref. [5]	RR: 88.5%
	Platinum-based	Carboplatin	Cell-cycle non-specific	Kidney	Bone-marrow suppression, kidney dysfunction	Allergy, peripheral nerve disorder, nausea	Ref. [5]	RR: 88.5%
	Taxane-based	Docetaxel	Depolymerization inhibitor	Liver	Bone-marrow suppression, hair loss, nausea	Allergy, edema, peripheral nerve disorder	Ref. [6,7,8]	RR: 33–53%
	Taxane-based	Paclitaxel	Stop at M phase	Liver	Bone-marrow suppression, hair loss, nausea	Allergy, edema, peripheral nerve disorder	Ref. [6,7,8]	RR: 33–53%
	Pyrimidine-based	5-fluorouracil (5-FU)	DNA synthesis inhibitor	Liver	Bone-marrow suppression, mucositis, nausea	Allergy, Myocardial ischemia, Diarrhea	Ref. [5]	RR: 88.5% (Platinum-combination therapy)
	Pyrimidine-based	Tegafur, Gimeracil, and Oteracil potassium (S-1)	S phase specific	Liver	Bone-marrow suppression, mucositis, nausea	Allergy, Myocardial ischemia, Diarrhea	Ref. [5]	RR: 88.5% (Platinum-combination therapy)
Molecular-targeted agents	Antibody-drug	Cetuximab	EGFR inhibitor	-	Rash, skin dryness, paronychia	Infusion reaction, hypomagnesemia, interstitial pneumonia	LA-HNSCC: Ref. [1]	OS: 49 months
Molecular-targeted agents	Antibody-drug	Cetuximab	EGFR inhibitor	-	Rash, skin dryness, paronychia	Infusion reaction, hypomagnesemia, interstitial pneumonia	R/M-HNSCC: Ref. [2]	OS: 10.1 months
Immune checkpoint inhbitor	Anti PD-1 antibody	Nivolumab	PD-1 receptor inhibitior	-	Diarrhea, Dysthyroidism, Rash	Colitis, diabetes mellitus, interstitial pneumonia	Platinum-resistance: Ref. [3]	OS: 7.7 months
Immune checkpoint inhbitor	Anti PD-1 antibody	Pembrolizumab	PD-1 receptor inhibitior	-	Diarrhea, Dysthyroidism, Rash	Colitis, diabetes mellitus, interstitial pneumonia	Ref. [4]	OS: 14.7/14.9 months (Pem-combination/monotherapy)

EGFR: epidermal growth factor receptor, PD-1: programmed cell death-1, AEs: adverse events, Pem: pembrolizumab, OS: median over all survival, RR: response rate, LA-HNSCC: locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, R/M-HNSCC: recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.