An experimental study of the combined effect of radiotherapy and chemotherapy on head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cell line

Objective: We have reported clinical effects of radiotherapy combined with either CDDP or CBDCA for head and neck cancer. In this study, we examined the combined effects of either CDDP or CBDCA with irradiation on the cell lines established from tongue SCC. Methods: The effects of irradiation, chemotherapy and the combined therapy on growth of the cell lines were examined respectively by the Alamar Blue assay. Results: The combination of 0.1 and 0.25 μg/ml CDDP with four times exposure to 1 Gy 60Co, which did not affect the growth of the cell lines, suppressed the growth synergistically. The combination of 1.0 and 2.0 μg/ml of CBDCA with four times exposure to 1 Gy 60Co showed synergistically suppressive effects on the growth of the cell lines. Conclusion: It was suggested that the radiotherapy combined with the platium coordination complexes had a clinical usefulness in patients with head and neck cancer.