Head & Neck Clinical Trials Team

The Head & Neck cancer clinical trial team aims to offer opportunities for clinical trial participation for every patient during their cancer treatment. This might involve a surgical study, one involving radiotherapy or anti-cancer drug therapy, a translational or tissue banking study or a clinical trial focusing on improving supportive care.

There are a number of different types of Head & Neck cancers and some studies, particularly those involving drugs, focus on participants having a specific type of lung cancer. The very nature of this means that it can be more challenging to have open clinical trials for every type of head and neck cancer available all the time, in each treatment setting. We aim to have several studies available in the “neoadjuvant” (pre-operative) setting, some in the “adjuvant” (post-operative) stage of treatment, and further studies in the metastatic setting, within our clinical trial portfolio.

If a patient is keen to be considered for clinical trials, but there is no local study open and available to them, we would be happy to consider referring them to research colleagues at neighbouring cancer centres, such as Glasgow, Newcastle or further afield. We also have the benefit of working collaboratively with the early phase (phase I) clinical trial team in Edinburgh, who, together with their counterparts in Glasgow, can offer suitable patients early phase clinical studies, often involving new targeted agents.

Research in the cancer units

The Edinburgh Cancer Centre has several linked cancer units, based in Fife, Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Borders and in West Lothian. Given the importance of research in cancer care, we also have clinical trial teams based in the cancer units, to be able to offer patients clinical research closer to home. We hope to also be able to offer patients in these areas local research studies during their cancer treatment journey, although unfortunately it is not possible to have all studies available to all the cancer units, as naturally there is a smaller population available, and some of these studies are only open to very specific groups of patients. Some newer drugs are also safer being tested within the cancer centre environment, with the available expertise there.

We work closely across SESCRN to ensure all oncologists are aware of open studies available at the cancer centre, and many patients from further afield do choose to enter clinical trials based in Edinburgh.

If you have any questions about clinical trials, your oncologist will be very happy to discuss these with you