The study involves head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) of the oral cavity, oropharynx, larynx or hypopharynx with positive nodes on only one side of the neck and no distant metastasis treated by primary (chemo)radiotherapy. The elective node irradiation on the contralateral side is not always mandatory and the dose may be too high. In this study, we evaluate two strategies: the impact of sentinel lymph node mapping to tailor the volumes to irradiate and the dose reduction.
The risk of lymph drainage to the contralateral side of the neck is limited to maximum 50% of the patients. Moreover, the risk of occult metastases lies between 20 and 40%. As a consequence, the rule of irradiating the contralateral neck with a prophylactic intent ("elective nodal irradiation") in nearly all HNSCC patients roughly doubles the irradiated volume and, hence, increases the risk of developing more frequent and more severe acute and late side effects. The use of sentinel lymph node mapping to assess the contralateral side of the neck should help to determine the individual drainage to the contralateral side of the neck and, in case of drainage, determine which nodes need to be irradiated. The ultimate goal is to reduce the volume irradiated at prophylactic dose to decrease the risk of severe late side effects (volume de-escalation strategy). This strategy is proposed based on the recent completion of a similar study led by the coordinating investigator, together with the head and neck team of the CHU-UCL-Namur, in HNSCC patients without macroscopic nodes in the neck and treated with (chemo)radiotherapy. It was shown that sentinel lymph node mapping helped to safely individualize and de-escalate the elective nodal irradiation volume and significantly reduce the risk of severe late side effects. Anyway, it is unknown if the whole sub-region of the neck containing the sentinel lymph node(s) or the node(s) only should be defined as target volume. Moreover, the dose used nowadays for elective nodal irradiation, i.e. 50 Gy in fractions of 2 Gy or biologically equivalent, dates back from the 70's. Many arguments (a.o. our better capacity to stage the neck with 3D imaging and the use of concomitant chemotherapy in the majority of node-positive HNSCC) are in favour of dose de-escalation. A multicentric randomized study performed in 100 HNSCC recently showed that the elective dose could be reduced to 40 Gy in fractions of 2 Gy or biologically equivalent, helping to reduce the risk of late dysphagia at 6 months post-radiotherapy. Confirmatory studies need to be performed on larger groups of patients. The primary aim is to evaluate contralateral regional control (cRC) rate at 2 years in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) of the oral cavity, oropharynx, larynx or hypopharynx with positive nodes on only one side of the neck and no distant metastasis treated by (chemo)radiotherapy applying a dose- and/or volume de-escalation.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
147
The dose de-escalation and/or volume de-escalation strategy will be individually adapted in function of the draining pattern of sentinel lymph nodes on the contralateral side of the neck.
ZOL
Genk, Limburg, Belgium
RECRUITINGJessa Ziekenhuis
Hasselt, Limburg, Belgium
RECRUITINGOLV Aalst
Aalst, Belgium
RECRUITINGUCL Saint-Luc
Brussels, Belgium
RECRUITINGInstitute Jules Bordet
Brussels, Belgium
RECRUITINGUniversity Hospital Gent
Ghent, Belgium
RECRUITINGUniversitaire Ziekenhuizen Leuven
Leuven, Belgium
RECRUITINGAZ Sint-Maarten
Mechelen, Belgium
RECRUITINGCHU-UCL Namur
Namur, Belgium
RECRUITINGAZ Turnhout
Turnhout, Belgium
RECRUITINGContralateral regional control (cRC) rate at 2 years
The rate of tumor control in the draining nodal regions of the neck.
Time frame: From baseline to 2 years after radiotherapy
Questionnaire assessing the quality of life of patients with head and neck cancer
Measured by the EORTC QLQ-H\&N35 questionnaire.
Time frame: From baseline to every 2 months in the first year and every 3 months in the second year after radiotherapy.
Questionnaire assessing the quality of life of cancer patients.
Measured by the EORTC QOL-C30 (version3) questionnaire.
Time frame: From baseline to every 2 months in the first year and every 3 months in the second year after radiotherapy.
Normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) gain estimation
Estimation of the difference in risk of complications for xerostomia, dysphagia and hypothyroidism according to validated NTCP models.
Time frame: Time from RT up to 2 years after RT.
Local Control
Loco-regional control (LRC)
Time frame: Time from RT until local progression or death whichever comes first, up to 2 years after RT.
Survival
Cancer specific survival
Time frame: Time from RT until the occurrence of a new tumor or death whichever comes first, up to 2 years after RT.
Survival
Overall survival
Time frame: Time from RT until death from any cause
Radiotherapy induced toxicity
Acute and Late Toxicity Scoring
Time frame: Time from start of RT up to 2 years after RT
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