a Multicentre Phase III Study of Risk-based Treatment Intensification With Hyperfractionated Radiotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer Patients

There is an unmet need to personalise treatment for patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and to improve treatment results for patients with advanced disease. In this phase III study, HNSCC patients with prognostic factors indicating increased risk of treatment failure that are aimed for curative treatment with radiotherapy (RT) will be randomised between standard treatment (conventionally fractionated RT with final RT dose 68.0 Gy) and hyperfractionated RT (HFX-RT) with final RT dose 83.0 Gy. In order to find better prognostic and predictive tools the study also includes exploratory and translational analyses including evaluation of grade of hypoxia with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and gene profiling by RNA-sequencing, tumour immune profiling, comparisons of global gene expression, gene aberrations and protein expression, and texture analyses of CT, FDG-PET and MRI images used during RT preparation and during patient follow-up. Patients with tumours with lower risk of recurrence, not eligible for randomisation in the study, can still participate in the translational parts of the study not investigating response to altered fractionation.