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Background and Purpose: Several multimodal strategies have been developed to treat patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity. The advantages of preoperative radiochemotherapy are downstaging of the primary tumor, an increased resectability rate, and the elimination of micrometastases. After successful phase II trials, the following therapy regimen for resectable advanced oral carcinoma was applied., Patients and Methods: 134 patients with resectable squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity stage II-IV received neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy consisting of 39.6 Gy in daily fractions of 1.8 Gy and concomitant carboplatin (70 mg/m(2) days 1-5). Radical resection and neck dissection were carried out afterwards., Results: After a median follow-up of 73 months, 82 patients (61%) had died. 54 patients (40%) experienced locoregional relapses or distant metastases. The overall survival was 65% +/- 4% after 2 years and 45% +/- 4% after 5 years. Cox regression survival analysis identified tumor regression, extracapsular lymph node spread and resection state as prognostic factors. Side effects of grade 3-4 were rare., Conclusion: Neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy with subsequent radical surgery can be recommended as an effective and safe treatment for primary resectable advanced tumors of the oral cavity. Acute and long-term toxicities appear to be moderate.

Aim: (131)I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine ((131)I-MIBG) therapy has been used in neuroblastoma treatment for many years but its value in high intensive first line treatment protocols is not exactly known., Patients, Methods: Stage 4 neuroblastoma patients >1 year with (123)I-MIBG positive residual disease (primary tumour and/or metastasis) after complete induction chemotherapy according to the German neuroblastoma trial NB97 were retrospectively analyzed., Results: One-hundred-eleven patients had (123)I-MIBG positive residual disease after complete induction chemotherapy. Forty patients received (131)I-MIBG therapy using a median activity of 0.44 GBq/kg body weight. By univariate analysis, patients who underwent (131)I-MIBG therapy had a better 3-year event free survival (3-y-EFS 46 +/- 8%) and 3-year overall survival (3-y-OS 58 +/- 9%) than 71 patients without (131)I-MIBG therapy (3-y-EFS 19 +/- 5%, p = 0.003; 3-y-OS 43 +/- 6%, p = 0.037). However, subgroup analysis of 66 patients who underwent high dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) during treatment found a very similar outcome with (131)I-MIBG therapy (3-y-EFS 49 +/- 9%, 3-y-OS 59 +/- 10%) and without (131)I-MIBG therapy (3-y-EFS 33 +/- 9%, p = 0.171; 3-y-OS 59 +/- 9%, p = 0.285) due to the dominating effect of ASCT. By multivariate analysis, (131)I-MIBG therapy had no impact on EFS (p = 0.494) and OS (p = 0.891). Only ASCT, external beam radiation therapy and MYCN amplification were important for EFS and OS., Conclusions: An independent advantage of I-131-MIBG therapy could not be proven in this retrospective analysis. The ongoing German Neuroblastoma Trial NB2004 will address the influence of (131)I-MIBG therapy with emphasis on tumour dosimetry.