Head and neck cancers — tumors of the mouth, throat, larynx, and salivary glands — are increasingly linked to HPV infection in younger patients, which changes how they respond to treatment. With over 2,500 active studies, researchers are focused on sparing patients from the severe side effects of radiation while maintaining cancer control.
What's actually going on in research
Immune checkpoint inhibitors are now part of standard care for recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell cancers, and trials are testing them alongside radiation in the curative setting. Treatment de-escalation is a major research theme — particularly for HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancers, where outcomes are better and patients may not need full-dose radiation. Targeted therapies against EGFR and other growth signals are being paired with immunotherapy to overcome resistance.
De-escalation trials
For HPV-positive throat cancers with favorable biology, trials are testing whether lower radiation doses or less chemotherapy maintain cure rates while causing far fewer long-term side effects.
Checkpoint immunotherapy
PD-1 inhibitors are being tested earlier in treatment — combined with standard chemoradiation — to see if activating the immune system from the start improves cure rates.
EGFR-targeted therapy
Drugs targeting the EGFR protein, which drives growth in many head and neck cancers, are being combined with immunotherapy and tested in patients whose tumors have specific mutations.
What to know before you search
Eligibility commonly depends on tumor site, HPV/p16 status, PD-L1 expression, disease stage, and prior treatment history.
What types of trials are currently open
- Treatment trials — Testing new systemic therapies in recurrent, metastatic, or locally advanced head and neck cancers.
- Neoadjuvant trials — Testing treatments before surgery or radiation to shrink tumors and potentially allow less aggressive local therapy.
- De-escalation trials — Testing whether lower-intensity treatment in favorable-risk HPV-positive patients preserves outcomes with fewer side effects.
- Surgical trials — Comparing robotic or minimally invasive surgery approaches to standard open surgery.
- Supportive care trials — Testing interventions for swallowing, speech, dry mouth, and other radiation side effects.
Recently added Head And Neck Cancer trials
Develop and Evaluate An Artificial Intelligence Assisted Prehabilitation Program for Returning to Work and Cost-effectiveness Analysis in Patients With Oral Cancer
The goal of this clinical trial is to develop and evaluate an Artificial Intelligence Assisted Prehabilitation Program (AI APP) for returning to work and cost-effectiveness analysis in patients with oral cancer (OC). The main questions it aims to answer are: * What kinds of needs are related to returning to work (RTW) in patients with OC from diagnosis to survival that we can incorporate into the development of AI APP to assist this population ? * How is the effect of the AI APP that based on findings from the first question for patients with OC on physical and psychological distress, fear of recurrence, self-efficacy in coping with cancer, communication, motor function, quality of life, and RTW? * How is the effect of the RTW AI prediction model to identify high-risk groups ? And how is the comprehensive cost effectiveness of benefits and quality of life of the AI APP for OC population? Researchers will compare patients without using AI APP to see if the AI APP works to assist with coping physical and psychological distress, communication, motor function, quality of life, and RTW issues for individuals with OC? Participants will: * Be asked to fulfill a structural questionnaire, or engage in a semi-structured one-by-one interview or a focus group to assess their physical, psychological, and social support needs in the first stage. * Be invited to participant the pilot testing of AI APP in the second stage. * Be provided and trained by 3-month AI APP for 3 months or cared as usual in the third stage. * Complete a structural questionnaire and follow up one year, including the baseline (before using the AI app) and at 1-2 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and 12 months after the baseline. * Engage in one-by-one interview or a focus group to assess user experiences of the AI APP.
Induction Chemo-Immunotherapy + Radiotherapy vs Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy for Unresectable Locally Advanced Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma
This is a prospective, randomized, phase II clinical study in patients with unresectable stage III-IVA esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Eligible patients will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to two treatment groups. The experimental group will receive 3 cycles of induction therapy with PD-1 antibody plus chemotherapy, followed by radiotherapy, and then maintenance therapy with PD-1 antibody monotherapy. The control group will receive concurrent chemoradiotherapy, followed by maintenance therapy with PD-1 antibody monotherapy. The primary endpoints are the complete response (CR) rate at 3 months after radiotherapy (assessed by investigators) and the 1-year progression-free survival (PFS) rate. Secondary endpoints include overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), duration of response, objective response rate (ORR), local-regional recurrence-free survival (LRFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), quality of life, and safety profile.
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