View clinical trials related to Head and Neck Cancer.
Filter by:Prospective randomized study in order to compare intravenous versus subcutaneous administration of amifostine in patients receiving radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. Salivary flow will be evaluated during few years after the treatment by a clinical evaluation, the measure of the weight of saliva and a patient benefit questionnaire cotation.
Amifostine is a radioprotective drug which is approved by the US FDA for administration prior to each radiation treatment using the intravenous route. The study evaluated the safety of amifostine administered subcutaneously. The four targeted toxicities were nausea/vomiting, hypotension, generalized skin rash, and injection-site skin reactions.
The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness and side effects of a new combination and schedule of chemotherapy drugs in the treatment of head and neck cancer. Patients with advanced or recurrent head and neck cancer, which is untreatable by surgery or radiation therapy are eligible for this study. Standard treatment for advanced or recurrent head and neck cancer involves the use of chemotherapy.
Radiotherapy (RT) with concurrent chemotherapy represents the state of the art in curative intent treatment for locally advanced squamous carcinoma of the head and neck. Tumor hypoxia and high levels of angiogenesis (blood vessel formation) are associated with treatment failure. Preclinical models reveal that radiotherapy itself may induce tumor secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Curability may consequently be reduced by multiple mechanisms. Over-expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) also occurs commonly and increases the risk of treatment failure. The addition of EGFR blockade to RT alone increases the chance of a cure. Concurrent VEGF and EGFR blockade could be synergistic with one another and improve the effectiveness of concurrent chemoradiation for advanced head and neck cancer. This study will add angiogenic and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) blockade into an established program of curative intent concurrent chemoradiation for locally advanced head and neck cancer. The safety and effectiveness of delivering the drugs bevacizumab and Tarceva in conjunction with twice daily irradiation and concurrent cisplatin (CDDP) chemotherapy will be determined.
Radiotherapy is the primary treatment modality or an important adjunct treatment for many patients with H&N carcinoma. Local control is directly related to dose and to the technical accuracy with which the dose is delivered to the target volume. Traditional radiotherapy techniques result in significant doses being delivered to normal tissues adjacent to the target, including the spinal cord and salivary glands. This leaves the patient with significant acute and late normal tissue toxicity that impacts on both the ability to tolerate the actual treatment and on the patient's long-term quality of life. Recently, the investigators have used static conformal multisegmental intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) for a comprehensive irradiation of head and neck cancer with dose sparing of uninvolved tissues. This has resulted in substantial preservation of major salivary gland function in many patients with primary sites in the oral pharynx, oral cavity, nasopharynx, and pyriform sinus. While the investigators' results to date have shown promising preservation of salivary flow, they do not know whether patients treated with IMRT have similar local control rates as those treated with standard radiotherapy. Some investigators have raised the concern that by giving a low radiation dose to areas adjacent to the target volume there is a risk of undertreating the disease. On the other hand, the IMRT delivered with this protocol (called "simultaneous integrated boost", or SIB) may improve local control rates by delivering the same biologically effective dose in a shorter overall time period. This is a phase I/II trial which seeks to establish the efficacy of IMRT for H&N cancer treatment, and to further investigate the relationship between radiation dose to the parotid glands, salivary flow, and quality of life.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of palifermin (recombinant human keratinocyte growth factor, rHuKGF) in reducing the incidence of severe oral mucositis in subjects with locally advanced head and neck cancer receiving radiotherapy with concurrent chemotherapy as adjuvant treatment for their disease.
Dry mouth occurs very often in patients who receive radiation treatment. Amifostine is a drug approved to reduce the short and long-term occurrence of dry mouth when patients receive radiation treatment for head and neck cancer. Some studies have shown that Amifostine reduces the side effects of radiation treatment for lung cancer. The use of Amifostine is still being investigated in lung malignancies. Amifostine is found to be a protectant from radiation side effects of such normal tissues as bone marrow, skin, oral mucosal, esophagus, kidney and testes. Patients that receive radiation treatments for lung cancer may experience side effects involving the esophagus. It is hoped that patients will benefit from the protection of their esophagus and avoid delays in radiation treatment due to side effects of the radiation.
The purpose of this trial is to investigate the efficacy of cetuximab in combination with chemotherapy in comparison to chemotherapy alone in patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer. Overall survival will be taken as the primary measure of efficacy.
This trial compares the use of 6 fractions versus the standard 5 fractions of radiotherapy used in the treatment of head and neck cancer.
Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is an experimental radiation therapy technique which is based on the principle of irradiating boron atoms with neutrons. When neutrons have relatively low energy, boron atoms that have been targeted to cancerous tissue using a suitable boron carrier (an amino acid derivative called BPA, boronophenylalanine) will capture the neutrons. As a result from the neutron capture the boron atoms will split into two, producing helium and lithium ions. The helium and lithium ions, in turn, have only a short pathlength in tissue (about 5 micrometers) and will deposit their cell damaging effect mainly within the tumor provided that the boron carrier (BPA) has accumulated in the tumor. In practice, the study participants will receive BPA as an approximately 2-hour intravenous infusion, following which the tumor is irradiated with low energy (epithermal) neutrons obtained from a nuclear reactor at the BNCT facility. BNCT requires careful radiation dose planning, but neutron irradiation will last approximately only for one hour. In this study BNCT will be repeated, and the 2 treatments will be given 3 to 5 weeks apart. The study hypothesis is that head and neck cancers that have recurred following conventional radiotherapy might accumulate the boron carrier compound, and might respond to BNCT.