Active clinical trials for "Head and Neck Neoplasms"

This trial studies information from a home sleep apnea machine to evaluate obstructive sleep apnea in patients with stage III-IV head and neck cancer. Sleep apnea (trouble breathing during sleep) can occur in head and neck cancer patients who have swelling in their neck. Wearing a sleep apnea machine overnight may help doctors evaluate obstructive sleep apnea in patients with head and neck cancer.

Head and neck cancer originate from the several different anatomical subsites especially the squamous cell carcinoma. This involves mainly Oropharynx, Hypopharynx, and Larynx. The common treatment approaches for HNC is radiation therapy, alone or combined with chemotherapy and surgery. In the present scenario, very little literature is available improving the QOL by physiotherapeutic measures in patients with HNC. To improve QOL, a well-designed study is needed. The study will be a two-group pretest-posttest design. The study will include patients with HNC receiving radiation or chemotherapy. One group will receive photobiomodulation therapy and another group will receive Sonophoresis. Both the group will receive Mandibular mobilization and stabilization exercises after electrotherapy. The Algometer, Digital Vernier caliper and core measure Questionnaire-C30 (QLQ-C30) will be used as an outcome measure to measure the effect of interventions between baseline and post-interventions.

RATIONALE: Vaccines made from a gene-modified virus and a person's dendritic cells may help the body build an effective immune response to kill tumor cells. Celecoxib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Giving vaccine therapy together with celecoxib may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving vaccine therapy together with celecoxib works in treating patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal cancer.

RATIONALE: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. Intensity-modulated radiation therapy delivers thin beams of radiation of different strengths directly to the tumor from many angles. This type of radiation therapy may reduce damage to the parotid (salivary) glands, prevent xerostomia (dry mouth), and improve quality of life. It is not yet known whether intensity-modulated radiation therapy is more effective than conventional radiation therapy in preventing xerostomia and improving quality of life in patients who have throat cancer. PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying intensity-modulated radiation therapy to see how well it works compared to conventional radiation therapy in treating patients with oropharyngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer who are at risk of developing xerostomia caused by radiation therapy.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. Combining radiation therapy with chemotherapy may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy plus radiation therapy in treating patients who have previously untreated advanced cancer of the mouth, pharynx, or larynx.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug may kill more cancer cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy in treating patients who have stage IIB, stage III, or stage IV cancer of the nasopharynx.

RATIONALE: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase I/II trial to study the effectiveness of radiation therapy following surgery in treating patients who have recurrent or second primary cancer of the head and neck following previous radiation therapy.

This early phase 1 trial studies the use of everolimus in restoring salivary gland function in participants with locally advanced head and neck cancer after concurrent chemoradiation or radiation therapy alone.

In this study, the investigators try to evaluate the efficacy and safety of apatinib in advanced non-squamous head and neck cancer and to validate the correlative biomarkers.

Despite many recent advances in pain management, post-operative pain is widely considered to be poorly managed. Furthermore, the mainstay of current pain management is opioids, for which there is strong evidence of ill effects and long-term potential for addiction. There are many studies demonstrating that perineural regional anesthesia can be superior to intravenous opioid analgesia, and that the technique is safe. By using temporary implanted catheters, this method can now deliver prolonged analgesia, thus reducing the need for opioids in the postoperative period. Regional anesthesia is a proven technique and used daily by anesthesiologists, and it is also the first choice for hip and knee replacement surgery for orthopedic surgeons. Patients undergoing head and neck reconstruction with the use of free tissue transfer experience a significant amount of post-operative pain due to the complexity of the surgery, the presence of a head and neck surgical site as well as a secondary donor site, and existing co-morbidities, most commonly malignancy, that also cause significant pain. These patients often require opioids for pain control throughout the hospital stay, and are almost always discharged home with additional opioids. By utilizing regional anesthesia blocks at the donor sites, the investigators can potentially reduce post-operative pain while also reducing the use of opioids.