Hypoxia-based Dose Escalation With Radiochemotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer

Patients with locally advanced suqamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck region receive a hypoxia scan either by magnetic resonance tomography, computed tomography or fluoromisonidazole (FMISO)-PET-CT. Patients presenting with hypoxia are randomized into standard therapy consisting of intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) with 70 Gy plus either 5-fluorouracil/mitomycin C or cisplatinum (Arm A) or a dose escalation of 10% (77Gy) to the hypoxic volume applied via simultaneous integrated boost in addition to the standard treatment (Arm B).