View clinical trials related to Head and Neck Neoplasms.
Filter by: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.
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.
Given that up-regulation of the Wnt pathway has been identified as having a significant role in carcinogenesis in advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, the investigator believes that inhibition of Porcupine via WNT974 will result in tumor control hence improvement in disease free and overall survival in these patients with a tolerable toxicity profile. As suggested by pre-clinical models, patients with a tumor harboring a Notch receptor (any of the four) loss of function mutation may have a greater response rate to treatment with WNT974. The investigator aims to address this question by administration of single agent WNT974 and following response radiologically along with close clinical follow up to monitor toxicities.
This study will identify baseline and/or pharmacodynamic biomarkers of response to ruxolitinib, based upon association with quantitative change in tumor size following 14-21 days of neoadjuvant ruxolitinib in patients with operable HNSCC.
This phase I trial studies the side effects and best dose of talazoparib in treating patients with solid tumors that have spread to other places in the body and usually cannot be cured or controlled with treatment (advanced) or have spread to other places in the body (metastatic) and cannot be removed by surgery and liver or kidney dysfunction. Talazoparib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth.
The primary purpose of this study is to see if it is safe to give patients with pancreatic or head and neck cancer a low dose of the FDA approved anesthetic drug ketamine at the same time they receive radiation and/or chemotherapy for their cancer treatment to prevent depression and its effects. Researchers would also like to see if giving ketamine at the same time as cancer treatment is practical and reasonably acceptable to the patient. New onset depression is highly frequent in those with head and neck cancer, and depression has many negative consequences for outcomes in those patients. Depression has been known to have greater incidence in pancreatic cancer patients than in patients with other malignancies. Therefore, investigators would also like to see if giving patients ketamine during their routine cancer treatment will prevent the onset of depression and its negative effects on cancer treatment outcomes, and also help with anxiety, pain, and quality of life. The study will also use a placebo to compare to the good and/or bad effects of ketamine. A placebo is not an active drug and it will be look the same as ketamine, as a liquid to be taken by mouth. Ketamine is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a general anesthetic by itself for some diagnostic and surgical procedures or combined with other general anesthetic agents. It has also been shown to reduce cancer pain. Ketamine is considered experimental in this study because it is not approved by the FDA for the prevention of depression.
The goal of this clinical study is to find out if certain instruments/devices, such as wide field fluorescence imaging point spectroscopy and/or brush cytology, can help health care providers find mouth cancer more quickly than a standard oral clinical exam.
This is a Phase I multicenter, open-label, dose-escalation study of DTP348. DTP 348 is an oral dual drug with two mechanisms of action: 1. carbonic anhydrase IX inhibitor which acidifies the intracellular pH through the sulfamide components 2. radio sensitizer of hypoxic cells through its 5-nitroimidazole moiety The study will be conducted in 2 parts. The phase I trials will be on the standard 3+3 design first as single agent then combined with radiotherapy: 1. A single agent dose-escalation phase in patients with solid tumours. 2. A dose-escalation phase in patients with HNSCC in combination with radiotherapy The main objective is to determine the recommended phase II dose of DTP348 in combination with radiotherapy
Hypothesis The incidence of toxicity in patients receiving the tumor DNA-transfected fibroblast vaccine will be acceptably low and the immunologic response rate sufficiently high to warrant further study of this therapy The study of the vaccine will proceed in two stages after the method of Simon (102). In the first stage, 15 patients will be accrued and treated. If two or fewer objective immunologic responses occur, the study will be terminated. If 3 or more responses are observed, the study will proceed to the second stage, accruing an additional 22 patients. If the second stage is complete and a total of 9 or more immunologic responses are observed among the 37 patients treated, the treatment response rate for the vaccine will be considered high enough to warrant further study. Conversely, if the evaluation of the vaccine concludes at the first stage, or if 8 or fewer total immunologic responses occur after completing the second stage, the vaccine will not be considered for further study.
To establish whether LJM716 in combination with cetuximab is safe and has beneficial effects in patients with platinum-pretreated recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.