Approximately 28,900 patients will be diagnosed with squamous cell cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx in the year 2002. Of these, an estimated 7,400 patients will present with metastases or develop recurrent disease, which is not amenable to surgery or radiation therapy. Palliative chemotherapy is thus the only treatment option. Currently, combinations of cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil are used as first line treatment strategies, with median times to progression of 2.5 to 3 months and median survival rates of 5 to 7 months. The time to achieve maximum response with combination therapy is on average 4 months.