Clinical Trials

The purpose of the investigation is to learn whether intense swallowing exercise or intense swallowing exercise coupled with electrical stimulation (E-Stim) helps patients who had head/neck cancer and currently have dysphagia swallow better.

This randomized phase II trial studies radiation therapy and cisplatin with or without surgery in treating patients with stage III-IV oropharyngeal cancer. 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. Giving chemotherapy with radiation therapy may kill more tumor cells. It is not yet known whether radiation therapy and cisplatin are more effective with or without surgery in treating patients with oropharyngeal cancer.

This phase II trial gathers information on the feasibility, safety, and effect of giving methotrexate, erlotinib, and celecoxib in treating oral cavity cancer that has come back after a period of improvement (recurrent) or that has spread from where it first started (primary site) to other places in the body (metastatic) among rural Midwest patients. Methotrexate is in a class of medications called antimetabolites. It is also a type of antifolate. Methotrexate stops cells from using folic acid to make deoxyribonucleic acid and may kill tumor cells. Erlotinib is in a class of medications called kinase inhibitors. It works by ...