Advanced head and neck tumors are usually treated with a combination of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy (radiochemotherapy) or just with radiochemotherapy. However, not all patients respond to this standard treatment. In these cases, the tumor recurs (relapse). In order to personalize treatment and improve the success rate, patients with radiation-resistant tumors are to be identified so that in future they can be offered a more intensive treatment (different radiation dose or more intensive chemotherapy or immunotherapy). Secondly, some patients are currently receiving too much treatment. Identifying this group of patients could lead to treatment-reduction strategies in the future.

In this joint funding project, scientists from all the DKTK sites are working together to make it possible to predict responsiveness in patients with head and neck tumors. To start with, they are retrospectively analyzing tumor samples from patients who have been treated with combined or stand-alone radiochemotherapy. For these patients, the scientists know exactly what treatment they received (e.g. the radiation dose used), and whether they responded to the treatment. The researchers are looking for characteristic biological tumor indicators, or biomarkers, that were particularly resistant or sensitive to radiation. However, before these biomarkers or combinations of biomarkers can be used in routine treatment, the scientists have to confirm their reliability in patients undergoing radiochemotherapy. This DKTK project is therefore currently recruiting patients for a clinical trial of this kind (HNprädBio), which will make use of the DKTK RadPlanBio infrastructure.