Otorhinolaryngology in Minnesota

Research

The Department of Otorhinolaryngology at Mayo Rochester is actively involved in clinical and basic science research of diseases involving the head and neck.

Clinical Trials

For a listing of clinical trials involving patients at Mayo Clinic, see the Clinical Trials Web page. It lists clinical trials by condition, treatment, specialty and Mayo Clinic location.

This list includes only trials about which Mayo researchers have chosen to publish information. There may be other trials under way that are not part of this listing. Ask your doctor about clinical trials appropriate for your situation.

Head and Neck Oncology Research

The Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (OTO-HNS) has a highly active research program. The primary mission of this program is to improve the methods for diagnosing, monitoring, and treating patients with head and neck cancer. This program is funded by grants awarded through the National Institutes of Health and the North Central Cancer Treatment Group, Institutional commitments, and philanthropy. Through our research, we hope to improve the quality and duration of life for each of our head and neck cancer patients, while maintaining their dignity, and independence.

From a diagnostic/monitoring perspective, we are actively working to identify new markers in the blood, which will serve to facilitate both early diagnosis and long term disease management[1]. This work is founded on a combined bioinformatics, genomics and proteomics platform. We currently have identified several candidate proteins, which are undergoing further evaluation with regard to their clinical potential.

From a pre-clinical therapeutic perspective, researchers within the Department of OTO-HNS are actively working to identify and develop new agents with therapeutic potential for the treatment of head and neck cancer. These agents fall into three broad categories including:

• Immunotoxins
• Costimulatory molecules
• Cellular therapeutics[2-5]

Each of these agents is designed to manipulate the body's ability to reject tumor cells while maintaining normal tissue function.

From a clinical perspective, the head and neck cancer group participates in trials administered by the NCCTG and the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG). Additionally, we are currently enrolling patients in a novel cellular therapy protocol for patients with fully resected head and neck cancer (Squamous cell carcinoma), who are at high risk of recurrence. In the near future, additional trials using approaches developed at Mayo Clinic will be made available to our patients.

• Strome, S.E., et al., Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Tonsils: A Molecular Analysis of HPV Associations. Clinical Cancer Research, 2002. In press.
• Strome, S.E., et al., Strategies for Antigen Loading of Dendritic Cells to Enhance the Antitumor Immune Response. Cancer Res, 2002. 62(6): p. 1884-1889.
• Dong, H., et al., Tumor-associated B7-H1 promotes T-cell apoptosis: a potential mechanism of immune evasion. Nature Medicine., 2002. 8(8): p. 793-800.
• Strome, S.E., et al., Interleukin 4 receptor-directed cytotoxin therapy for human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in animal models. Clinical Cancer Research., 2002. 8(1): p. 281-6.
• Wilcox, R.A., et al., Provision of antigen and CD137 signaling breaks immunological ignorance, promoting regression of poorly immunogenic tumors. Journal of Clinical Investigation., 2002. 109(5): p. 651-9.

Chronic Sinusitis

See also information on Mayo Clinic research on chronic sinusitis.