View clinical trials related to Head and Neck Neoplasms.
Filter by:The goal of this study is to measure the effect of radiation therapy on the activity levels of patients. This will be achieved by tracking their activity levels during a treatment course of radiation therapy.
This research trial studies skin/soft tissue elasticity in head and neck cancer survivors with lymphedema and fibrosis. Lymphedema and fibrosis is a common effect of head and neck cancer which may lead to skin tightness, pain, and body image issues. Early detection of lymphedema and fibrosis may help reduce serious functional loss of the neck. Shear wave elastography is a technique that provides a quantitative measure of stiffness using a push pulse to generate shear waves within the tissues. Conventional imaging techniques are then used to monitor the shear waves generated through the tissue to calculate the shear wave speed. Shear wave elastography may help obtain an early and accurate measurement of tissue elasticity in head and neck cancer survivors.
The purpose of this study is to compare the quality of life (QOL) in head and neck patients who are given the GJ tube (which is placed in the bowel) versus those who are given the G-Tube (which is placed in the stomach) for prophylactic feeding. The standard of care for patients at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) is using GJ tubes. Patients who agree to be in the study will be randomized to either the GJ-Tube or the G-Tube arm. Patients randomized to the G-tube will receive prophylactic intravenous and oral antibiotics prior to insertion of the G-tube. Antibiotics will be given for a total of 1 week. A few hours following tube insertion (on return to PMH ward), patients will complete a single item, visual analogue pain scale (VAS). Patients will remain in hospital for a minimum of 24 hours and until the patient and/or family is able to care for the Enteric Feeding(EF) device at home. Patients randomized to the GJ-Tube may receive i.v medication during the procedure. All Patients will be asked to fill out several questionnaires at different time- points of the study. All Patients will have regular assessments to evaluate their overall quality of Life, toxicity, and how they respond to treatment during the study. Patients will also be assessed after they completed study treatment.
The current trial is evaluating the integration of a pretherapeutical FDG-PET/MRI in the adjuvant radiochemotherapy in patients with head and neck cancer. As a secondary hypothesis the intention is to develop of a multi-parametric decision support system for personalised medicine by integrating functional imaging, γH2AX-analysis and genetic information.
The hypotheses of the study are as follows: - Mass-based inverse optimization in radiotherapy treatment planning will result in a reduction of normal tissue and organs at risk (OAR) doses for desired prescription therapeutic doses to the targets. - Dose-mass histograms (DMHs) may be more relevant to radiotherapy treatment planning and treatment plan assessment than the standard of care, realized through dose-volume histograms (DVHs)
The goal of this clinical research study is to learn if exercising the muscles that help you cough and swallow, called expiratory muscle strength training (EMST), can help reduce the risk of pneumonia due to aspiration (inhaling saliva instead of swallowing it) in patients who have had radiation for head and neck cancer.
Cellular immunity can be changed after surgery and anesthesia. Tissue injury by surgical procedures significantly reduces the immune function in proportion to the degree of tissue injury. In addition, the use of opioids as analgesics during the perioperative period depress cellular immunity, in particular the activity of the natural killer (NK) cells. This perioperative immunosuppression may cause deleterious consequences on postoperative outcome in cancer patients. The aim of this study is to confirm the presence or extent of the change of NK cell activity between before and after head and neck surgery. Additionally, investigators will identify the clinical or genetic factors related to the change of NK cell activity.
Cancers located in the upper aerodigestive tract of the head and neck region present unique management challenges due to the crucial functions in this anatomic region along with its anatomic density. As such, cancers themselves and the actual treatment can affect these functions. Of these, the ability to effectively and safely transport a swallow bolus from the oral cavity to the esophagus is particularly important. This consideration has in fact been a major source of debate regarding the optimal management for head and neck cancers as both oncologic-effective and function-preserving therapies are desired. Accomplishing this therapeutic goal has been elusive and can be attributed to a lack of tools that effectively and longitudinally evaluate swallow function over the course of a treatment and in follow-up. As such, investigators surprisingly lack a clear understanding of the natural history of treatment -related swallow dysfunction (dysphagia) regardless of the treatment modality. As such, understanding the prevalence of this significant complication is in fact not well established. Understanding the true prevalence of treatment-related dysphagia is in fact critical to establish as it will help guide decisions as to whether or not treatment strategies require modification including de-intensification of treatment that is receiving considerable attention for favourable prognosis patients associated with the human papillomavirus (HPV). To address this problem, winvestigators hypothesize that the quantitative and validated patient-reported outcome (PRO) instrument, the Sydney Swallow Questionnaire (SSQ), can be an effective tool to longitudinally measure swallow function to determine the natural history of head and neck cancer treatment-related swallow dysphagia. The SSQ is particularly well suited for longitudinal evaluation of swallow function as it quantifies various aspect of patient-perceived swallow function in contrast to other swallow PROs that measure the impact of swallow function on quality of life domains. To determine the two-year prevalence of dysphagia, investigators will employ a multi-institution prospective study design using our Oncospace® web-portal to facilitate secure prospective data curation and analysis that will include evaluations before, during and following standard of care definitive cancer treatment for a total of 36 months in the follow-up period.
The null hypothesis is that patients screened by PET/CT will not have detection of disease recurrence any earlier than those screened by CT alone. The alternative hypothesis is that PET/CT surveillance will lead to detection of disease recurrence 3 months earlier than CT surveillance. Furthermore, to reject the null hypothesis, earlier detection must be associated with a cause-specific survival improvement of 10%. Primary endpoints will include time from the completion of definitive therapy to diagnosis of recurrent disease, and absolute survival within 3 years after completion of initial therapy. Duration of survival between diagnosis of recurrence and subsequent death will not be a primary endpoint because the investigators expect that PET/CT will offer an opportunity for earlier recognition of recurrence and be subject to lead-time bias. Duration of survival will be measured from completion of primary treatment until death. Note: the presence of residual disease at surgical consolidation does not constitute a recurrence event.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether the symbiotic use in patients with head and neck cancer impact on intestinal function after surgical treatment.