Chemotherapy for laryngeal cancer
Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells. These drugs target rapidly dividing cells throughout the whole body. This means that chemotherapy kills cancer cells but it can also damage healthy cells.
With most types of chemotherapy, the drugs travel through the blood to reach and destroy cancer cells all over the body, including cells that may have broken away from the primary tumour. This is described as systemic therapy.
Some people with laryngeal cancer have chemotherapy. If you have chemotherapy, your healthcare team will use what they know about the cancer and about your health to plan the drugs, doses and schedules.
You may have chemotherapy to:
- treat advanced laryngeal cancer before other treatments, such as surgery
- destroy cancer cells left behind after surgery and reduce the risk that the cancer will come back (recur)
- relieve pain or control the symptoms of advanced laryngeal cancer (called palliative chemotherapy)
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are often given during the same time period to treat laryngeal cancer. This is called chemoradiation. Some chemotherapy drugs can help make radiation work better by making cancer cells more sensitive to radiation. Combining chemotherapy and radiation therapy can be more effective than either treatment on its own.
Chemotherapy drugs used for laryngeal cancer
The most common drugs used in chemoradiation include:
- cisplatin
- carboplatin
- paclitaxel
- docetaxel
A common regimen for chemoradiation is to give cisplatin once a week, for 3 weeks, with radiation therapy.
Other common chemotherapy drugs for laryngeal cancer include:
- fluorouracil (also called 5-fluorouracil or 5-FU)
- bleomycin
- methotrexate
- capecitabine
The most common chemotherapy drug combinations used for laryngeal cancer include:
- cisplatin and fluorouracil
- carboplatin and paclitaxel
- docetaxel, cisplatin and fluorouracil
Side effects
Side effects of chemotherapy will depend mainly on the type of drug, the dose, how it’s given and your overall health. Side effects of chemoradiation can be more severe than those of chemotherapy alone. Tell your healthcare team if you have side effects that you think are from chemotherapy. The sooner you tell them of any problems, the sooner they can suggest ways to help you deal with them.
Common side effects of chemotherapy drugs for laryngeal cancer include:
Find out more about chemotherapy
Find out more about chemotherapy and the side effects of chemotherapy and chemoradiation. To make the decisions that are right for you, ask your healthcare team questions about chemotherapy.
Details on specific drugs change regularly. Find out more about sources of drug information and where to get details on specific drugs.
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