口腔がんの薬物療法

‘Head and neck cancer’ is a general term for malignant neoplasms arising from subsites of the head and neck area and consists of various histology. Among them, recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma from the oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, or larynx (RM-HNSCC) is a primary target of the drug development, the evidence for RM-HNSCC has been adopted for the chemotherapy of oral cancer. Currently, an immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) is the main drug for the chemotherapy for RM-HNSCC; the treatment should be performed after fully understanding the difference of the evidence in ‘platinum-sensitive’ or ‘platinum-refractory’ disease. Notably, managing immune-related adverse events (irAE) is essential in ICI therapy because delayed treatment for irAE can lead to fatal events. The physicians in charge must understand the irAE management deeply and distinguish irAE between what should be treated by oneself and what should be consulted with specialists.