Clinical Trials

The purpose of this study is to review the Mayo Clinic cancer registry for patients with metastatic or non-resectable salivary gland tumors, review the histopathology and evaluate treatment approaches focusing on how they correlated with the histopathology results.

RATIONALE: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as cisplatin, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. It is not yet known whether radiation therapy is more effective when given together with chemotherapy or alone after surgery in treating salivary gland tumors. PURPOSE: This randomized phase II/III trial is studying radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy to see how well it works in treating patients with high-risk malignant salivary gland tumors that have been removed by surgery.

1. Salivary tumor DNA (stDNA) and the HPV self-test for oncogenic HPV (self-test) will be detectable in patients with human papillomavirus associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HPV(+)OPSCC) and not in HPV(-)OPSCC, oral cavity cancer or normal controls.
    
2. There will be a difference in the microbiome, virome, and metabolomics in normal control patients compared to patients with oropharyngeal cancer or oral cavity cancer.
    
3. There will be a difference in patient reported risk factors between patients with malignancy and normal controls.
    
4. There will be dynamic changes in the microbiome and metabolomics which correspond with patient reported outcomes in patients with oropharyngeal cancer or ...