Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy for Head and Neck Cancer
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2019-06-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Many normal tissues, including the eyes, brain, and spinal cord are very close to cancers in
the nasopharynx. The dose of radiation delivered to the cancer is limited by tolerance of
these normal tissues. Standard radiation treatment techniques using three or four radiation
beams cannot avoid delivering some dose of radiation to these normal tissues that do not need
to get radiation. Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) uses many hundreds of
computer-controlled radiation beams aimed at your cancer to try to lower the amount of
radiation that normal tissues receive, while still delivering the desired amount of radiation
to your cancer and to areas that your doctor thinks may have cancer cells.
The doctors at Princess Margaret Hospital are conducting this study in order to test whether
the use of IMRT techniques can improve the chance of controlling your cancer in the head and
neck region.