Preoperative Radiochemotherapy and Radical Surgery of Advanced Head and Neck Cancers — Results of a Prospective, Multicenter DÖSAK Study

Present research concerning the efficiacy of therapeutic strategies for squamous cell carcinomas of the oral cavity and the oropharynx profits from former observational studies. The so-called retrospective German, Austrian, and Swiss Association for Head and Neck Tumors (DOSAK) study (Platz et al. 1986) served to review existing proposals for classification (UICC 1973, 1978; AJC 1978) and to develop a statistical classification which enables the head and neck oncologist to define prognostically homogeneous patient collectives. The treatment-dependent prognostic index (TPI) was the corresponding result (Platz et al. 1982).