New drug cocktail shows promise for tough head and neck cancers

This study tested whether adding the targeted drug Tarceva to two standard chemotherapy drugs (cisplatin and docetaxel) could shrink tumors in people with head and neck cancer that had spread or come back. Fifty adults with this advanced cancer took part. The goal was to see how many patients had their tumors shrink or disappear, and to track how long they lived without the cancer growing. This is a disease control study, not a cure, because ongoing treatment or monitoring is still needed.