Degree of nephrotoxicity after intermediate- or high-dose cisplatin-based chemoradiotherapy in patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer

Abstract

Background The purpose of this study was to compare the occurrence of cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity between concomitant chemoradiotherapy with high versus intermediate-dose cisplatin. Methods One hundred forty-four patients with locally advanced head and neck or nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) were included; 40 patients received cisplatin 100 mg/m2 (high dose) on days 1, 22, and 43, and 104 patients received cisplatin 40 mg/m2 weekly (intermediate dose) during 6 weeks in combination with radiotherapy. Results During treatment with intermediate-dose cisplatin, 6.7% developed an increase of ≥50% serum creatinine versus 60.0% treated with high-dose cisplatin (p