Oropharyngeal Function After Radiotherapy With IMRT

This project defines the effect on swallowing of intensity modulation during radiotherapy in an organ preservation treatment involving chemoradiation for 125 oral, laryngeal, and pharyngeal cancer patients with previously untreated Stage III or IV disease and to identify optimum treatment strategies. The specific aims are: 1) define the physiologic effects of chemoradiotherapy with IMRT to various sites in the upper aerodigestive/vocal tract including the cervical esophagus and the rate at which patients return to oral intake; 2) document the acute toxicities, late complications, locoregional failure and survival, and the relationship between fibrosis rating and the measure of laryngeal elevation; 3) determine whether the patient's swallowing mechanism can compensate for physiologic deficits in swallowing by introduction of interventions (postural changes, voluntary swallow maneuvers, several bolus volumes); 4) determine whether time to return to oral intake, effects of swallow maneuvers and/or volume, presence of an esophageal stricture and the duration of success of dilatation depends on radiation dose volume to specific structures in the head and neck; 5) define the relationship of tongue base pressure to development of esophageal stricture. Patients will be accrued from Northwestern University and University of Chicago. Effects are defined in terms of swallowing function, morbidity, toxicity and survival. Other outcome measures are the maintenance of voluntary control (flexibility) of the oropharyngeal region as indicated by the ability to correctly produce swallow maneuvers; and positive changes in cricopharyngeal opening duration with normal bolus volume shifts. Patients will be studied pretreatment, and at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months post completion of chemoradiation. At each assessment, patients will receive a videofluoroscopic assessment of swallowing utilizing a standard protocol, assessment of xerostomia, mucositis, and fibrosis as well as assessment of disease status and quality of life scales. Head and neck cancer is a severe problem that affects public health. Most current treatments are a combination of radiotherapy with chemotherapy, which can result in severe swallowing problems which may make patients unwilling to accept this type of treatment. This project attempts to quantify the swallow problems associated with this specific treatment and the effects of interventions for these swallow problems.