Recent Achievements
Larynx preservation
The aim of the EORTC 24954 trial was to compare sequential CT and RT with alternating chemo-radiotherapy in resectable hypopharynx and larynx cancers. Results of the quality of life analysis were presented at the Group Meeting in March 2010 and will be published in 2011.
Locally advanced setting
In EORTC 24971 trial the role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) was evaluated in patients with non-resectable locally advanced head and neck cancer and the study showed that with the introduction of taxanes the role of NACT has changed. Quality of life assessment was included in the trial and the results have been published in the British Journal of Cancer in 2010. The conclusion is that induction chemotherapy with TPF before RT not only improves survival and reduces toxicity compared with PF but also seems to improve global HRQOL in a more sustainable manner.
A phase II study (EORTC 24061) building upon the results of the previous EORTC 24971 trial in the non-resectable setting has been opened in 2008. In this study, the feasibility and efficacy of four cycles of TPF regimen (docetaxel, cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil) combined with the EGFR inhibitor cetuximab followed by the concomitant use of radiotherapy and one platinum compound, cisplatin or carboplatin (for radio sensitization), plus cetuximab was being studied. This trial was closed in 2010 after recruitment of 47 patients due to an unexpectedly high rate of toxicities, the causes of which are under discussion with leading experts in the field who run trials studying the same combination.
Postoperative setting
The protocol for a new phase III trial (EORTC 22071-24071 study) in the postoperative setting was finalized in 2010. This protocol was developed in close collaboration with the EORTC Radiation Oncology Group. Based on the results of the EORTC 22931 trial, high risk patients after curative surgery will be randomly assigned to receive postoperative chemoradiation versus postoperative chemoradiation in combination with EFGR-inhibition (panitumumab). The study is currently in regulatory process and will accrue the first patients by January 2011.