The emerging role of predictive assays in the management of head and neck cancer

Abstract

Head and neck cancers, especially the advanced, unresectable ones, are difficult to manage due to their high hypoxic content and their ability to repopulate during treatment. Furthermore, the very large inter-patient variability of tumour response for the same treatment of this malignant disease necessitates a quantitative pre-treatment assessment of the tumour. Individualized treatment planning is therefore a tendency in oncology towards better management of disease. The aim of predictive assays is to enable an individual treatment protocol that is optimal for a particular patient to be chosen. Although a variety of predictive assays proposed have proved to be disappointing when trialed, a number of assays under investigation offer promise in predicting treatment outcome. The current paper presents a review of predictive assays for tumour response, in particular for head and neck carcinomas.