SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Oral Health
Sec. Oral Cancers
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2025.1632316
Efficacy of oral metronomic chemotherapy in the management of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma-A systematic review
Provisionally accepted
- 1Saveetha Dental College And Hospitals, Chennai, India
- 2College of Dentistry, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates
- 3Centre of Medical and Bio-Allied Health Sciences Research, Ajman University, Ajman, Ajman, United Arab Emirates
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Background: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a group of heterogenous malignancies and constitutes one of the most prevalent forms of cancer. Oral metronomic chemotherapy (OMCT) is a treatment in which low doses of anticancer drugs are given at regular intervals over a long time, with many advantages over conventional therapies, particularly in nations with high cancer burden. The present systematic review aimed to evaluate the efficacy of OMCT in the management of HNSCC in comparison to other standard chemotherapy regimens.Methodology: The review was registered in the Prospero database (CRD42023426000). An electronic search was conducted using PubMed, Scopus, web Web of Science and Google Scholar databases. Articles in which OMCT was used to treat HNSCC were included for systematic review, and the survival and response rates were analyzed.Results: Twenty-four eligible articles were included for evaluation, which revealed that administration of OMCT produced higher survival and response rates in subjects compared to standard chemotherapy.The evidence from the included studies supports that oral metronomic chemotherapy is substantially more effective as compared to standard chemotherapy regimens in squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck.
Keywords: Oral metronomic chemotherapy, Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, Survival Rate, Angiogenesis, OSCC (oral squamous cell carcinoma)
Received: 21 May 2025; Accepted: 15 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Segin Chandran, Pandiar, Krishnan and Gopinath. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Deepak Pandiar, Saveetha Dental College And Hospitals, Chennai, India
Divya Gopinath, College of Dentistry, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.