Study Using Pharmacogenetics to Select Treatment for Head and Neck Cancer
Status:
Withdrawn
Trial end date:
2013-06-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
This is a study for patients with head and neck cancer who will be receiving chemotherapy and
radiation therapy for their disease. The purpose of this study is to see if the investigators
can use genetic differences between patients to select the right drug to use with radiation
therapy. This type of genetic testing is called pharmacogenetics.
Currently there are two drugs used to treat head and neck cancer that have provided a benefit
when given with radiation compared to radiation alone in previous studies. These two drugs
are cisplatin and cetuximab (Erbitux).
In this trial, the investigators will test whether genetic differences between patients can
be used to pick which drug they should receive. A recent study that looked back to see how
well patients with head and neck cancer responded to treatment with cisplatin showed that
genetic differences in a few genes were associated with who did and who did not survive their
cancer. The investigators are taking that finding and using it to test patients for these
genetic differences to determine whether they should receive cisplatin or cetuximab. In other
words, the investigators are trying to take what is essentially a flip of the coin choice
between these two drugs, and instead use individual patient's genetic differences to make-and
hopefully improve- this choice.