Chemoprevention of head and neck cancer.

Tobacco-related upper aerodigestive tract cancer is a worldwide health problem. Clinical advances in surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy have shown only marginal improvement on the survival rate of these malignancies in the past two decades. The concept of multistage carcinogenesis and field cancerization, the high incidence of SPTs, and the promising results of chemopreventive agents especially 13 cRA to effectively reverse oral premalignancy and prevent SPTs indicate a new avenue to improve the outcome of these newplastic diseases. The study of second primary tumor prevention is too early to show any survival benefit in the treatment arm and toxicity of high dose 13 cRA is significant. The current prospective large scale phase III SPT prevention trial of low-dose 3 cRA may establish a new standard approach for the control of head and neck neoplasms. Identification of potentially useful panels of biomarkers as intermediate endpoints will undoubtedly reduce time and cost currently required to conduct chemoprevention trials.