Clinical Trials

Cancer clinical trials help answer important questions about medical care in an effort to develop new and improved ways to treat all patients with cancer and those who will develop cancer in the future.

Find current clinical trials offered by Duke Cancer Institute:

• Head and neck cancer-related clinical trials
• All cancer clinical trials

Research Overview

Duke doctors and scientists are at the forefront of the quest to develop new treatments and cures for head and neck cancers and to reduce treatment side effects. For example:

• Duke investigators are leading the effort to use functional metabolic imaging to better determine prognosis and to predict the outcome of a planned course of treatment. They are conducting clinical trials that use both a specialized type of MRI scan called dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI to measure tumor blood flow and blood vessel function and PET scanning to measure tumor glucose metabolism. The scans are performed before and during treatment to determine the effects of therapy on these functions and their relationships to the success of treatment. This information will help to personalize treatment recommendations for individual patients.
• The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGRF) is an important molecular target on the surface of most head and neck cancer cells. Duke physicians are leading a trial for head and neck cancer that uses the EGRF-targeted therapy panitumumab. Panitumumab will be added to standard radiation treatment after surgery, and gene expression analysis will seek to identify a pattern for panitumumab effectiveness.
• Human papillomavirus (HPV) has been identified as a major cause of cancer in people who have never used tobacco. A clinical study is under way to examine the impact of HPV+ head and neck cancer on the immune system. These tumors have a favorable prognosis compared with HPV- tumors, and this research aims to understand the relationship between HPV status and immune system function.
• Researchers are currently investigating a light-based optical probe to rapidly and noninvasively analyze tumor characteristics and identify biomarkers before and during treatment. This probe, developed by Duke University biomedical engineers, may improve the ability to detect cancer and monitor the effectiveness of treatment.
• Duke experts were at the international forefront in development of a new standard of care for patients with advanced stage head and neck cancer. The strategy, which uses an innovative combination of intensive, twice-daily radiation therapy and simultaneous chemotherapy, has significantly improved the probability of curing many patients.
• Duke researchers were amongst the first worldwide to measure oxygen levels in head and neck cancer and to demonstrate that low concentrations were strongly linked to the likelihood of cancer recurrence after treatment.
• Duke physicians are now leading a large worldwide trial that will determine whether the addition of a new drug to the simultaneous radiation and chemotherapy regimen can overcome the adverse effect of poor tumor oxygenation.
• The Duke Head and Neck Cancer Clinic is also testing a drug that can measure the levels of oxygen in tumors without the need for additional, invasive procedures. The drug, EF-5, will allow doctors to evaluate tumors to better understand why certain tumors behave more aggressively than others.
• Duke is conducting the only trial in the United States that explores the benefits of adding two molecularly targeted drugs to simultaneous radiation and chemotherapy in the treatment of head and neck cancer. One drug starves the tumor by preventing angiogenesis, the creation of a tumor blood supply. The other drug shuts down receptors on a tumor cell that would normally send signals telling it to grow.
• Duke researchers were involved in the groundbreaking international trial of amifostine to prevent radiation induced dry mouth and damage to salivary glands that can result from head and neck cancer treatment.
• Duke physicians have been actively involved in the development of function-sparing head and neck cancer operations that result in better function and less disfigurement for patients.