Conditions: Cancer of Larynx
Keywords: Cancer of Larynx
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 4
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to learn how to identify early which patients will respond to chemotherapy plus radiation therapy in order to reduce the number of subjects who require surgery (followed by radiation therapy).

Detailed description:
In this study one cycle of chemotherapy will be administered and then those subjects who respond well to that cycle will be started on radiation therapy along with chemotherapy and those that don't respond well to the initial cycle of chemotherapy, will undergo a total laryngectomy (surgery to remove the voice box) followed by radiation therapy. The initial cycle of chemotherapy consists of the drugs Taxotere, Cisplatin, and 5-Fluorouracil (this combination is known as TPF). Then on Day 20 of the study, the subjects will be administered another chemotherapy agent called cetuximab (a.k.a. C-225). It will then be determined if the patient's response to the chemotherapy was favorable by examining the patient's tumor with an endoscopy. If the response is determined to be good, then the patient will continue with a chemotherapy regimen with the addition of radiation therapy combination. If the patient's response to the chemotherapy is determined to be less than favorable, then the patient will be advised to undergo salvage surgery (a.k.a. laryngectomy) to remove their voice box and then undergo radiation therapy treatment. Additionally, tumor tissue samples and blood will be studied to see if there are special molecular markers that help predict when a tumor will respond to chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Arms:
arm 1: Patients will undergo induction chemotherapy with (TPF): Docetaxel (Taxotere) 75 mg/m2 and cisplatin 100 mg/m2 on day 1, and 5-FU 750 mg/m2 days 1-4.

On day 20 patients will receive a single dose of cetuximab (C-225) 400 mg/m2.

Depending upon disease response, patients will undergo salvage laryngectomy followed by radiation therapy and chemotherapy.

Interventions: intervention 1: Cisplatin intervention 2: Cetuximab intervention 3: 5-Fluorouracil intervention 4: Docetaxel
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 1\. Day 1: 100 mg/m2, administered as an i.v. infusion will run over one hour. 2. Day #23: Subjects with a \< 50% response (NR) to induction chemotherapy will undergo salvage laryngectomy followed by RT. Cisplatin will be added to radiation for patients whose surgical pathology reveals high-risk features (i.e. extracapsular spread, \> 2 positive lymph nodes, perineural invasion, or positive margins). Cisplatin will either be dosed a 100 mg/m2 every 21 days or 40 mg/m2 weekly at the discretion of the prescribing physician. intervention 2: 1\. Cetuximab will be administered at 400 mg/m2 on Day 20 (2 hour administration). 2. Cetuximab will be administered in combination with radiation therapy to those subjects who had a Partial or Complete response after the first cycle of the chemotherapy regimen is administered. The dosage for these administrations is 250 mg/m2 over sixty minutes and it will be administered for six weeks. intervention 3: 5-FU will be administered 750 mg/m2 in 0.9% normal saline as a 24-hour continuous infusion, days #1-4. intervention 4: 75 mg/m2 by I.V. over one hour on Day # 1 only

Protocol document: