Chemoradiotherapy has become the standard of care for patients with unresectable head and neck cancer, but there can be substantial added toxicity with chemoradiotherapy compared to radiation therapy alone. Neoadjuvant therapy with cisplatin / 5-fluorouracil has demonstrated activity in this disease, and taxanes appear to improve response further. Docetaxel / cisplatin / 5-fluorouracil has been shown to be a highly active regimen. However, with the potential added toxicities of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, it is important to minimize toxicity while maintaining efficacy. Chemotherapeutic agents that are DNA cycle-specific like 5-fluorouracil are more stomatotoxic than those that are cell phase non-specific. Of note, several studies have suggested that docetaxel and cisplatin is a highly active combination when used for advanced disease or as neoadjuvant therapy .