Head and neck cancers represent the fifth cause of death from cancer in France. They are often diagnosed at an advanced stage. The poor prognosis of these diseases has led to the introduction of intensified treatments. Numerous randomized trials have evaluated the benefits of the addition of chemotherapy to locoregional treatment and of the modification of radiotherapy fractionation. The results of these trials have been synthesized in two individual patient data meta-analyses coordinated by the Meta-Analysis Unit of Gustave Roussy Cancer Center. However these meta-analyses bring up clinical and methodological questions, some of which are dealt with in this thesis. First we have studied by different means the interaction between patient level covariate, tumor site and treatment effect. We have also adapted the methodology of network meta-analyses to survival data to perform a global analysis of the entire meta-analysis database, and to rank treatments according to their efficacy, including some treatments that had not been directly compared. Some of these results were eventually confirmed by subsequently published randomized trials. We have reviewed the advantages and limits of network meta-analysis. We have also launched the update of all these meta-analyses in order to produce results consistent with actual clinical practice, update patient follow-up, and collect additional data regarding treatment efficacy, toxicity and compliance. The final results of the taxane induction meta-analysis are presented in this manuscript.
