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Prediction of Residual Disease by Circulating DNA Detection After Potentiated Radiotherapy for Locally Advanced Head and Neck Cancer

Not Applicable
Recruiting
Conditions
Locally Advanced Head and Neck Carcinoma
Interventions
Biological: Blood sample
Registration Number
NCT05710679
Lead Sponsor
Centre Jean Perrin
Brief Summary

Sixty percent of newly diagnosed head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) are at a locally advanced (LA) stage. Depending on tumor site, stage, and resectability, locoregional failure rates can range from 35% to 65%. The persistence of residual disease at the end of treatment is a major prognostic element but is not always reliably assessed by current imaging techniques. Up to 40-50% of patients have residual adenomegaly and only 30% have viable disease when further adenectomy is performed. Sensitive and reproducible detection of residual disease after treatment is a major challenge in this patient category.

18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) guided surveillance, with a negative predictive value of 95-97%, has proven to be non-inferior to cervical curage in HNSCCs with residual adenomegaly. Cervical curage is now indicated only if the response assessed by PET-CT is incomplete. Nevertheless, the ability of PET-CT to predict treatment failure is unsatisfactory due to a high frequency of false positives, because of inflammatory changes, with a positive predictive value of about 20-50%.

Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) may provide a more reliable assessment of response to potentiated radiotherapy. Liquid biopsy monitoring of response in patients treated with potentiated radiation therapy for locally advanced HNSCCs a has been shown to be feasible. In 85% of patients, ctDNA is detectable and correlates significantly with tumor volume and response to treatment. In addition, one study showed that post-radiotherapy analysis of circulating HPV16 viral DNA (cvDNA) in patients with HPV16-related HNSCCs complemented PET-CT and helped guide management decisions. HPV16 cvDNA and PET-CT have similar negative predictive values, whereas the positive predictive value is higher for HPV16 cvDNA (100% versus 50%). Nevertheless, current data are insufficient to allow routine use of this marker.

This is a multicenter, single arm, open study for patients with a locally advanced head and neck cancer for which a potentiated radiotherapy is indicated.

Detailed Description

Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
RECRUITING
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
63
Inclusion Criteria
  • Age ≥ 18 years and ≤ 80 years
  • Histologically confirmed, never treated squamous cell carcinoma with lymph node involvement
  • squamous cell carcinoma p16+or p16-, stage III, IVa or IVb, N1 minimum, resectable but not operated or unresectable, with indication for potentiated radiotherapy
  • Oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx or larynx, cervical adenopathies without primary
  • Availability of FFPE samples prior to treatment initiation
  • Detection of circulating DNA in the initial blood sample
  • Obtaining informed consent from the patient
  • Affiliation to the French social security system
Exclusion Criteria
  • Tumor of the nasopharynx, sinuses, nasal cavity, salivary glands or thyroid cancer
  • Treatment by exclusive radiotherapy
  • Contraindication to cervical lymph node dissection
  • Metastatic disease (stage IVc)
  • Previous treatment for head and neck cancer
  • History of other cancer in the last 3 years (except carcinoma in situ, basal cell skin carcinoma, localized prostate cancer Gleason 6)
  • Pregnant or breastfeeding woman
  • Patient under guardianship or curators
  • Psychological disorder (cognitive disorders, vigilance disorders, etc.) or social reasons (deprivation of liberty by judicial or administrative decision) or geographical reasons that could compromise the medical follow-up of the trial or compliance with the treatment

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
SINGLE_GROUP
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
InterventionalBlood sample-
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Rate of patients with incomplete cervical lymph node response on PET-CT after radiation therapy potentiated having circulating DNA (cDNA)3 months after potentiated radiotherapy

Presence/absence of circulating DNA after treatment versus presence/absence of residual disease

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
cDNA detection rate among patients with residual adenomegaly after treatmentat three-months after potentiated radiotherapy.

The detection of cDNA and response on CT-Scan will be compared

Rate of concordance of mutational profiles and Human papillomavirus-high risk (HPV-HR) genotypes between the primary tumor and cDNAs at diagnosisInclusion

evaluated the mutational profiles from FFPE block and the inclusion blood sample

Assessment of the prognostic value of cDNA detection 3 months after the end of potentiated radiotherapy for patients with residual adenomegalyat three-months after potentiated radiotherapy.

Evaluated by overall and progression-free survival

Assessment of the prognosis value of the presence of residual adenomegalyAt month 27

Evaluated by overall and progression-free survival

Evaluation of interobserver reproducibility of the interpretation of SUVmax measurements of residual cervical adenomegaly.3 months after potentiated radiotherapy

A centralized review of the PET-CT will be done by the sponsor to evaluate the reproducibility of the interpretation of SUVmax measurements of residual cervixal adenomegaly (pathological/benign/equivocal)

Number of patients with ctDNA and cvDNA detection at diagnosis and the clinical, paraclinical and pathological features of the cancerThrough study completion, an average of 66 months
Rate of concordance between p16 immunohistochemistry and HPV-HR genotyping on the primary tumorInclusion
Test of the concordance between real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and NGS on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) for simultaneous detection and genotyping of HPV-HR at diagnosisInclusion

Trial Locations

Locations (4)

Centre Jean PERRIN

🇫🇷

Clermont-Ferrand, Puy-de-Dôme, France

CHU de Grenoble Alpes

🇫🇷

Grenoble, France

Hôpital de la Croix-Rousse

🇫🇷

Lyon, France

CHU de Saint-Étienne

🇫🇷

Saint-Étienne, France

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