Formation of an international intergroup to coordinate clinical trials in head and neck cancers: HNCIG

Focus on the expected quality of reporting in SBRT/radiosurgery prospective studies: how far have we come in 30 years?

Objectives:

We aimed at describing and assessing the quality of reporting in all published prospective trials about radiosurgery (SRS) and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT).

Methods:

The Medline database was searched for. The reporting of study design, patients’ and radiotherapy characteristics, previous and concurrent cancer treatments, acute and late toxicities and assessment of quality of life were collected.

Results:

114 articles – published between 1989 and 2019 - were analysed. 21 trials were randomised (18.4%). Randomisation information was unavailable in 59.6% of the publications. Data about randomisation, ITT analysis and whether the study was multicentre or not, had been significantly less reported during the 2010–2019 publication period than before (respectively 29.4% vs 57.4% (p < 0.001), 20.6% vs 57.4% (p < 0.001), 48.5% vs 68.1% (p < 0.001). 89.5% of the articles reported the number of included patients. Information about radiation total dose was available in 86% of cases and dose per fraction in 78.1%. Regarding the method of dose prescription, the prescription isodose was the most reported information (58.8%). The reporting of radiotherapy characteristics did not improve during the 2010 s-2019s. Acute and late high-grade toxicity was reported in 37.7 and 30.7%, respectively. Their reporting decreased in recent period, especially for all-grade late toxicities (p = 0.044).

Conclusion:

It seems necessary to meet stricter specifications to improve the quality of reporting.

Advances in knowledge:

Our work results in one of the rare analyses of radiosurgery and SBRT publications. Literature must include necessary information to first, ensure treatments can be compared and reproduced and secondly, to permit to decide on new standards of care.

Characteristics of Radiotherapy Trials Compared With Other Oncological Clinical Trials in the Past 10 Years

Importance

Modern precision radiotherapy is an innovative and effective treatment of cancer, yet it is unclear how radiotherapy trials are affected by expanding targeted and immune therapies and declining National Institutes of Health funding.

Objective

To analyze and compare the characteristics of radiotherapy trials with other oncological trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This is a cross-sectional analysis of trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov between June 1, 2007, and May 8, 2017. Records of all 243 758 clinical studies registered by May 8, 2017, were downloaded, but only 25 907 interventional oncological trials registered between June 1, 2007, and May 8, 2017, and whose primary purpose was "treatment" were included in the final analysis. Trials were categorized according to cancer type and other registration information.

Main Outcomes and Measures

Characteristics of radiotherapy trials were compared with characteristics of other oncological trials. Chronological shifts in radiotherapy trials were also analyzed.

Results

Of the 25 907 trials selected, 1378 (5.3%) were radiotherapy trials and 24 529 (94.7%) were other oncological studies. The number of radiotherapy trials increased gradually from 94 (June 1, 2007, through May 31, 2008) to 192 (June 1, 2015, through May 31, 2016). Radiotherapy trials were less likely than other oncological studies to be registered before participant enrollment (763 of 1370 [55.7%] vs 16 105 of 24 434 [65.9%]; P < .001), to be blinded (45 of 1378 [3.3%] vs 2784 of 24 529 [11.3%]; P < .001), or to involve multiple geographic regions (2.4% vs 9.5%; P < .001), but they were more likely to be phase 2 to 3 (773 of 1124 [68.8%] vs 12 910 of 22 300 [57.9%]; P < .001) and to have a data-monitoring committee (839 of 1264 [66.4%] vs 11 728 of 21 060 [55.7%]; P < .001). Only a minority of radiotherapy trials were industry sponsored, which was significantly lower than for other oncological trials (80 of 1378 [5.8%] vs 10 651 of 24 529 [43.4%]; P < .001; adjusted odds ratio, 0.08; 95% CI, 0.06-0.10). The number of National Institutes of Health-sponsored radiotherapy trials decreased from 80 of 544 trials (14.7%) from 2007 to 2012 to 72 of 834 trials (8.6%) from 2012 to 2017 (P < .001). Radiotherapy trials with a sample size of more than 100 patients decreased from 155 of 543 trials (28.5%) from 2007 to 2012 to 157 of 833 trials (18.8%) from 2012 to 2017 (P < .001).

Conclusions and Relevance

The limited number of and the scarcity of funding for radiotherapy trials is concerning given the integral role of radiotherapy in the clinical management of patients with cancer worldwide. A multidisciplinary collaboration to promote and fund more radiotherapy research is warranted.

Current Treatment Landscape of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma and Potential Trials Evaluating the Value of Immunotherapy

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a type of head and neck cancer with a distinctive regional and racial prevalence. It is associated with Epstein-Barr virus infection and has a high propensity for regional and distant metastases, while it is very sensitive to radiation and chemotherapy. A common feature of Epstein-Barr virus-positive NPC is the dense infiltration of lymphocytes in the tumor stroma and positive programmed death-ligand 1 expression in tumor cells, making it an attractive target for immunotherapy, especially immune checkpoint inhibitors. As new immunotherapeutic agents are being rapidly adopted in many cancers, including head and neck cancer, the National Cancer Institute sponsored a clinical trial planning meeting to identify opportunities for developing phase II and III trials testing immunotherapy in different stages of NPC. The meeting started with the summary of the biology of the disease, current standards of care, and evidence of immunotherapy in this cancer. Three subcommittees were tasked to develop clinical trials: loco regionally advanced, nonmetastatic NPC; widely metastatic NPC; and either local recurrence after initial treatment or presenting with oligometastatic disease. This article summarizes the proceedings of this clinical trial planning meeting and provides a road map for future trials incorporating immune checkpoint inhibitors for therapeutic management of NPC. This road map, though specific for NPC, may also be applicable to other virally driven cancers that have similar ability to evade the host's immune system.