A study looking for a new way to work out oxygen levels in throat cancer (BoHEMIaN study)

Doctors usually treat head and neck cancer that has spread to lymph nodes  in the neck with a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy (chemoradiation ). But although cancers often respond well to this, sadly some do not, and can continue to grow or come back again quickly. Doctors call these aggressive cancers. Researchers want to find ways to identify early on those who have more aggressive, harder to treat cancers so they can choose their treatment with this in mind, and in future, design new treatments.

We know that cancers with low levels of oxygen are harder to treat with radiotherapy. But doctors cannot tell in advance who will have cancer with low levels of oxygen. There is a scan that shows oxygen levels in a cancer, called a copper ATSM PET-CT scan. But this is time consuming, expensive and not available in many hospitals. So researchers in this study are looking at whether they can identify genes that predict low levels of oxygen in cancer cells. They could then perhaps develop a simpler test.

They will carry out a copper ATSM PET-CT scan and take blood samples from people with cancer of the oropharynx. And, study stored cancer samples from those taking part. They will look for any relationship between the samples and scan results, to see if any features (biomarkers) in the samples can be used to predict how the cancer will behave.

You will not have any direct benefit from taking part in this study, and it is unlikely to change your treatment plan in any way. But the results of the study will be used to help people with head and neck cancer in the future.