Conditions: Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck
Keywords: 18F-EF5 PET/CT Reproducibility
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 10
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The results of previous studies suggest further development of \[18F\]EF5 as a PET tracer for imaging hypoxia. This is a non-randomized prospective study to obtain information on reproducibility of \[18F\]EF5 intratumor distribution using repeated pretreatment PET/CT scans.

Detailed description:
All patients will undergo normal diagnostic and staging procedures, including a conventional 18F-FDG PET/CT scan for the purpose of RT or surgical planning. In addition to that, an 18F-EF5 PET/CT scan will be performed on a separate day. The patients receive intravenous injection of 250-350 MBq of \[18F\]EF5. After that, a venous blood sample will be obtained for measurement of plasma radioactivity. A low-dose CT (helical) will be performed for attenuation correction and anatomical reference. After that, a PET scan will be performed (starting at 3 h after injection). The second 18F-EF5 scan will be performed in a similar way 4-7 days after the first scan. A representative histologic sample of primary tumor is pre-condition for study and an effort is made to store part of fresh histologic material in liquid nitrogen for later use in immunohistochemical analysis.

Patients are scheduled to undergo preoperative or definitive chemoradiotherapy using current clinical standards after completion of the current protocol. Follow-up information (event-free survival and overall survival) will be gathered.

Arms:
arm 1: 18F-EF5 PET/CT scan

Interventions: intervention 1: 18F-EF5 intervention 2: Pretreatment PET/CT-scan (performed two times)
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: None intervention 2: None

Protocol document: