Etablierte und neue konzepte zur therapie des kopf-hals-karzinoms

To date the classical therapy strategy for head and neck cancer bases on resection and radiotherapy of the tumor eventually combined with adjuvant chemotherapy. Nevertheless the clinical prognosis of head and neck squamous cell cancer patients has remained unchanged during the past decades, which urges the need for new therapeutic strategies. Several steps could be taken to improve the situtation. Primarily the elimination of cancerogenous substances in the sense of cancer prevention could help to lower the incidence of this disease. Documentation of the clinical outcome in tumor registers could help to establish a better understanding of tumorbiology and adequate treatment of different tumor types. A very promising approach seems to be the use of gene therapy as a new treatment regiment. Several studies are on the way that directly eliminate tumor cells or that reactivate tumor-suppressed immune effector cells. Small advances are made already, future concepts in the development.