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Pre-Op MRI on Margin Status for Transoral Robotic Surgery for HPV+ Tonsillar Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (Case CCC) logo

Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (Case CCC)

Status

Not yet enrolling

Conditions

Tonsillar Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Human Papilloma Virus Related Carcinoma

Treatments

Procedure: Transoral robotic surgery+MRI

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT07060261
CASE5325

Details and patient eligibility

About

This prospective research study aims to see if pre-operative MRI can predict the margin status after transoral robotic surgery (TORS) for human papillomavirus positive (HPV+) tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The pre-operative MRI will have a standard MR neck without and with contrast, with added axial T2 weighted sequence and T2 SPACE sequence through the tonsils. Three neuroradiologists will grade the thickness of the pharyngeal constrictor muscle (the muscle that surrounds the tonsils) on a five-point scale. The study will determine if the pre-operative MRI grading will correlate with positive, insecure (<1mm), or secure (>1mm) margin during TORS surgery for your HPV+ tonsillar SCC.

Full description

There has been a marked increase in the incidence on oropharyngeal SCC in recent decades because of the rise of HPV+ disease1-3. Stage I or II tonsillar SCC can be treated by either surgery or radiation with similar good outcomes. For tumors treated surgically, transoral robotic surgery has replaced open surgery due to decreased morbidity and improved local control. It has been shown that margin status of 1.1mm of healthy tissue around the tumor is sufficient for adequate local control. However, approximately 8.1% of the time there is a positive or insecure margin, resulting in added adjuvant radiation and possibly chemotherapy, with increasing morbidity for each added treatment modality.

Therefore, there is a need to determine pre-operatively the chance of positive or insecure margin at surgery to avoid increased morbidity with added adjuvant treatment. Currently, the most commonly used imaging modality is computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but this is to rule out absolute contraindications such as internal carotid artery encasement, involvement of the mandibular periosteum, prevertebral fascia/musculature, or masticator space musculature. Recently, a retrospective study used a novel five-point grading scale (1, normal constrictor; 2, bulging constrictor; 3, thinning constrictor; 4, obscured constrictor; and 5, tumor protrusion into the parapharyngeal fat) to evaluate the pharyngeal constrictor muscle, showing that higher scores with obscured constrictor or tumor protrusion into the parapharyngeal fat resulted in increased risk of positive or insecure margin. Given this, there is need for a prospective study to estimate the accuracy of the five-point MRI score with respect to distinguishing patients who go onto have secure surgical margins versus patients who go on to have insecure/positive surgical margins including surgical report of violation of anatomic boundaries (pharyngeal constrictor muscle)

Enrollment

30 estimated patients

Sex

All

Ages

18+ years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

  1. Adults ≥ 18 years of age.
  2. Participants being considered for TORS for HPV+ tonsillar SCC.

Exclusion criteria

  1. Participants < 18 years of age.
  2. Participants who cannot provide informed consent.
  3. Participants who do not wish to participate.
  4. Vulnerable populations, including but not limited to cognitively impaired persons, pregnant women, and students or house staff under the direct supervision of the investigator.
  5. Participants in whom MRI is contraindicated.

Trial design

Primary purpose

Diagnostic

Allocation

N/A

Interventional model

Single Group Assignment

Masking

None (Open label)

30 participants in 1 patient group

Pre-operative MRI
Experimental group
Treatment:
Procedure: Transoral robotic surgery+MRI

Trial contacts and locations

1

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Central trial contact

Jonathan Lee, MD

Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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