Carbon Ion Re-Radiotherapy in Patients With Recurrent or Progressive Locally Advanced Head-and-Neck Cancer

Recruiting now · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Locally Advanced Head-and-Neck Cancer

In brief

After multimodal therapy of head-and-neck tumors, patients often develop local recurrence, locally progressive disease or second primary tumors. In this highly pre-treated patient cohort, therapeutic options are limited. Patients that are not candidates for salvage surgery may benefit from re-irradiation. Despite recent technical advances, re-irradiation is associated with severe side effects. Carbon ion Re-Radiotherapy (reCIRT) has shown encouraging results in retrospective analyses with moderate toxicity. In the current Phase-II CARE-trial, reCIRT and conventional photon re-irradiation in patients with recurrent or progressive locally advanced head-and-neck cancer will be assessed regarding toxicity/ safety, local progression-free survival, overall survival and quality-of-life.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT04185974

Run by

University Hospital Heidelberg

People needed

72

Starts

2020-08-25

Expected to finish

2031-01-30

Last updated by the study team

2026-03-25

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Locally recurrent / progressive head-and-neck cancer after initial radiation therapy
• Microscopic or macroscopic tumor after salvage surgery
• Indication for re-irradiation
• Completed wound healing after surgical intervention
• Karnofsky-Performance-Score ≥ 60
• Age ≥ 18 years
• Written informed consent (must be available before enrolment in the trial)
• Ability of subject to understand character and individual consequences of the trial
• For women with childbearing potential, (and men) adequate contraception
• Submission of previous radiotherapy records

You may not qualify if…

• Re-irradiation of malignancy in the larynx
• Diagnosed plasmocytoma, sarcoma or chordoma
• Previous re-irradiation in-field
• Time interval < 6 months after initial radiotherapy
• Distant metastases (except pulmonary metastases)
• Patients who have not recovered from acute toxicities of prior therapies
• Refusal of the patients to take part in the study
• Pregnant or lactating women
• Known carcinoma <5 years ago (excluding Carcinoma in situ of the cervix, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma of the skin) requiring immediate treatment interfering with study therapy
• Participation in another clinical study or observation period of competing trials, respectively

Where it is running

• University Hospital of Heidelberg, Radiation Oncology — Heidelberg, Germany (enrolling)
• Philips University Marburg — Marburg, Germany (enrolling)

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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