Trial Outcomes & Findings for Reduced-Dose Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy With or Without Cisplatin in Treating Patients With Advanced Oropharyngeal Cancer (NCT NCT02254278)

After first step registration and prior to randomization, patients were tested for p16. Only patients with p16-positive tumors continued on to randomization. In total, 316 patients were enrolled and 308 were randomized.

Reduced-Dose Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy With or Without Cisplatin in Treating Patients With Advanced Oropharyngeal Cancer

Progression is defined as local, regional, or distant disease progression or death due to any cause. Percentage is estimated using the binomial distribution.

Local-regional failure is defined as local or regional progression, salvage surgery of the primary tumor with tumor present/unknown, salvage neck dissection with tumor present/unknown \> 20 weeks after the end of radiation therapy, death due to study cancer without documented progression, or death due to unknown causes without documented progression. Distant metastasis and death due to other causes are considered competing risks. Local-regional failure time is defined as time from randomization to the date of first progression/death or last known follow-up (censored). Rates are estimated by the cumulative incidence method.

Distant metastasis is defined as distant progression. Local-regional failure and death due to any cause are considered competing risks. Distant metastasis time is defined as time from randomization to the date of progression/death or last known follow-up (censored). Rates are estimated by the cumulative incidence method.

Overall survival time is defined as time from randomization to the date of death or last known follow-up (censored). Overall survival rates are estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method.

Adverse events were graded using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) v4.0. Grade refers to the severity of the AE. The CTCAE v4.0 assigns Grades 1 through 5 with unique clinical descriptions of severity for each AE based on this general guideline: Grade 1 Mild, Grade 2 Moderate, Grade 3 Severe, Grade 4 Life-threatening or disabling, Grade 5 Death related to AE.

The MDADI is a 20-item tool with each item scored as Strongly agree; Agree; No opinion; Disagree; or Strongly disagree. There is 1 global item (G1), 6 emotional subscale items (E2-E7), 5 functional subscale items (F1-F5), and 8 physical subscale items (P1-P8). For all items except E7 and F2, Strongly agree corresponds to a score of 1, Agree 2, No opinion 3, Disagree 4, and Strongly disagree 5. For E7 and F2, the scores are reversed; these 2 items are rescored to match the others before calculating summary scores. The composite (total) score is the mean of the 19 items (other than G1) X 20. Composite scores range from 20 to 100 with higher scores indicating less dysphagia.

NPV is the percentage of participants alive and failure-free at 2 years among those with a negative post-treatment scan, as evaluated by central review. Negative scan determined as follows: primary site, right neck, left neck evaluated using a 5-point ordinal scale: 1-Definite complete metabolic response (CMR), 2-Likely CMR, 3-Likely inflammatory, 4-Likely residual metabolic disease (RMD), and 5-Definite RMD. 'Negative'= 1 or 2, 'Indeterminate'=3, 'Positive' = 4 or 5. 'Negative' for all three evaluation sites = overall score of 'Negative.' Progression (failure) is defined as local, regional, or distant disease progression (PR) or any death. Local-regional progression (failure) is defined as local or regional PR, salvage surgery of the primary tumor with tumor present/unknown, salvage neck dissection with tumor present/unknown \> 20 weeks post RT, death due to study cancer or unknown causes without documented PR. The protocol specified that both arms would be combined for analysis.

Positive HPV DNA status is defined as 5 or more HPV DNA fragments per mL of blood plasma, assessed by tumor-tissue modified viral (TTMV) testing.

Calculated as treatment value - baseline value. HPV DNA was assessed by tumor-tissue modified viral (TTMV) testing.

HPV DNA copy number is the number of HPV DNA fragments per mL of blood plasma, assessed by tumor-tissue modified viral (TTMV) testing. The natural logarithm of HPV DNA copy is used to determine correlation. GTV is the volume of the tumor determined by imaging used for treatment planning. The summary data of these two measures are reported separately in corresponding outcome measures. Correlation is measured by the Pearson correlation coefficient and ranges from -1 to +1, where ±1 indicates the strongest possible (negative or positive) correlation and 0 indicates no correlation. The study protocol indicates that participants are analyzed as a single group, treatment arms combined.

HPV DNA copy number is the number of HPV DNA fragments per mL of blood plasma, assessed by tumor-tissue modified viral (TTMV) testing. The natural logarithm of HPV DNA copy is used to determine correlation with gross tumor volume. Note that a natural log, by definition, has no units. The study protocol indicates that participants are analyzed as a single group, treatment arms combined. Correlation of Baseline Log HPV DNA Copy Number and Gross Tumor Volume (GTV) are reported in another outcome measure.

GTV is the volume of the tumor determined by imaging used for radiation treatment planning. The study protocol indicates that participants are analyzed as a single group, treatment arms combined. Correlation of Baseline Log HPV DNA Copy Number and Gross Tumor Volume (GTV) are reported in another outcome measure.

Local-regional failure is defined as local or regional progression, salvage surgery of the primary tumor with tumor present/unknown, salvage neck dissection with tumor present/unknown \> 20 weeks after the end of radiation therapy, death due to study cancer without documented progression, or death due to unknown causes without documented progression. Positive HPV DNA status is defined as 5 or more HPV DNA fragments per mL of blood plasma, assessed by tumor-tissue modified viral (TTMV) testing.

Progression-free survival (PFS) failure is defined as local, regional, or distant disease progression or death due to any cause. Positive HPV DNA status is defined as 5 or more HPV DNA fragments per mL of blood plasma, assessed by tumor-tissue modified viral (TTMV) testing.