Andrew Cook, MD, Discussed Exciting Clinical Trials Utilizing DART and Treatment De-Escalation in HPV+ OSCC

At the 2021 American Society for Radiation Oncology, CancerNetwork® spoke with Andrew Cook, MD, from Henry Ford Health System, about the most exciting clinical research presented at the meeting. One such trial was the phase 2 ORATER2 study (NCT03210103), which set out to assess treatment de-escalation with radiotherapy vs trans-oral surgery (TORS) in patients with human papilloma virus (HPV)–positive oropharyngeal cancer. Additionally, he highlighted the phase 3 MC1675 trial (NCT02908477), examining de-escalated adjuvant radiation therapy in HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer.

Transcript:

In the head and neck area, there are a lot of really [interesting studies] that are going on. Specifically, [there are] 2 de-escalation trials [that I’m] excited to hear about. One is from Daniel Ma, MD. He has a phase 3 dynamic adaptive radiation therapy trial [where] they’re really looking at the de-escalation of radiation therapy after TORS for patients with HPV-positive oropharynx cancer, as compared with standard of care adjuvant radiation doses. I’m excited to hear about that.¹ Also, David Palma, MD, MSc, PhD, FRCPC is going to present his phase 2 ORATOR2 trial, which actually [includes] 2 different de-escalated arms in regard to radiation as well as a surgical arm.² There’s a lot of cool stuff coming in the field there.

References

1. Ma DJ, Price K, Eric MJ, et al. Long-term results for MC1273, a phase II evaluation of de-escalated adjuvant radiation therapy for human papillomavirus associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HPV+ OPSCC). Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2021; 111 (suppl 3): S61. doi/10.1016/j.ijrobp.2021.07.155

2. Nichols AC, Lang P, Prisman E, et al. Treatment de-escalation for HPV-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma with radiotherapy vs. trans-oral surgery (ORATOR2). Presented at the 2021 American Society For Radiation Oncology October 24-27. Virtual. Abstract CT01