Research into nasal and paranasal sinus cancer
Researchers around the world are looking at better ways to diagnose and treat nasal and paranasal sinus cancer and manage treatment side effects.
Go to Cancer Research UK’s clinical trials database if you are looking for a trial for nasal and paranasal sinus cancer in the UK. You need to talk to your specialist if there are any trials that you think you might be able to take part in.
Some of the trials on this page have now stopped recruiting people. It takes time before the results are available. This is because the trial team follow the patients for a period of time and collect and analyse the results. We have included this ongoing research to give examples of the type of research being carried out in nasal and paranasal sinus cancer.
Research and clinical trials
All cancer treatments must be fully researched before they can be used for everyone. This is so we can be sure that:
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they work
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they work better than the treatments already available
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they are safe
To make sure the research is accurate, each trial has certain entry conditions for who can take part. These are different for each trial.
Hospitals do not take part in every clinical trial. Some trials are only done in a small number of hospitals, or in one area of the country. You may need to travel quite far if you take part in these trials.
Research into scans for head and neck cancers
Researchers are looking at ways of improving scans to diagnose cancer and also to see how well treatment is working.
Research into treatment
Researchers are looking at ways of improving treatments, including:
radiotherapy 
targeted cancer drugs immunotherapy .
Talk to your healthcare team to find out if there are any trials that you might be able to take part in.
Improving radiotherapy planning (INSIGHT 2)
A study is looking at adjusting the plan of radiotherapy during treatment. This is to target the cancer better and to have less treatment to the surrounding organs.
Before starting radiotherapy, you have a planning appointment. This is to work out where to give the radiotherapy and how much to give. You have a . This shows the doctor where the cancer is and where to target the treatment.
Researchers want to improve the radiotherapy planning by doing an and a CT scan. They also want to do another treatment plan after having the first couple of treatments. They hope that by doing this, they can better target the cancer and reduce the radiotherapy to the surrounding organs. This is adaptive radiotherapy.
Immunotherapy and a targeted cancer drug
Pembrolizumab is an . It works by stimulating your immune system to help fight cancer. Doctors use pembrolizumab to treat cancer, including some head and neck cancers.
Lenvatinib is a targeted drug called a cancer . It works by blocking signals that tell cancer cells to grow. Doctors use lenvatinib to treat some cancers but not head and neck cancers.
Researchers looked at whether having lenvatinib with pembrolizumab works better than pembrolizumab on its own as a treatment for head and neck cancer.
Research into the long term side effects of radiotherapy
A study is looking into developing a computer tool. This tool will predict what long-term side effects people might have after radiotherapy.
