Andrew Cook, MD, on On-Going Clinical Research Efforts in the Head and Neck Cancer Space

At the 2021 American Society for Radiation Oncology, CancerNetwork® spoke with Andrew Cook, MD, from Henry Ford Health System, about current ongoing trials in the head and neck cancer space, including efforts to better mitigate mucositis-related pain and treatment de-escalation.

Transcript:

At our specific institution, not myself, but some of my other colleagues are looking at an interesting question of what happens when you place an apparatus in a patient’s mouth to cool the oral mucosa while they’re undergoing radiation. [The intention is to] see if that may help to mitigate mucositis-related pain and improve quality of life going [for those] through treatments. That will be an exciting thing to see patients accrued on that and see what it may ultimately show. It’s an interesting idea. There are these other national trials looking at treatment deintensification of human papillomavirus positive oropharynx cancer, and those are going to be interesting. That's going to be a big direction of where the field is going.