Definitive chemoradiotherapy for squamous head and neck cancer: cisplatin versus carboplatin? A meta-analysis.

AIM: Concomitant chemoradiotherapy (with cisplatin or carboplatin) is an option of definitive treatment for squamous head and neck cancer. We aimed to perform a meta-analysis comparing those two platinum agents.

MATERIALS & METHODS: We carried out a systematic search on English literature between 1990 and 17 April 2015 according to the Cochrane review guidelines.

RESULTS: Five of 60 studies fulfilled inclusion criteria with 491 patients. There was no difference in response rate. Cisplatin tends to be more active systemically than carboplatin, without statistically significance; 5-year survival rate: 30 and 27%, respectively (p = 0.33).

CONCLUSION: Despite the trend to improved outcomes in using cisplatin, carboplatin is also active and can be a reasonable option to treat patients.