Mouth Opening, Prevention, Education, Nutrition (OPEN) (OPEN)

February 11, 2025 updated by: Institut du Cancer de Montpellier - Val d'Aurelle

Trismus Prevalence and Preventive Rehabilitation Associated With Therapeutic Education for Patients With Head and Neck Cancer Treated With Concomitant Radiochemotherapy

In France, 11 316 new cases of upper aero-digestive tract cancer were estimated in 2012. These cancers are treated with a triple-therapy combining surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy/targeted therapies. Treatment-induced sequelae are often burdensome: reduction in mouth opening, eventually on to trismus, limitation of lips and tongue mobility, deterioration in oral hygiene, pain due to inflammation and muscle fibrosis. Trismus is defined as a mouth opening of less than 35mm in patients with head and neck cancers. It can be induced by treatments (surgery or radiotherapy) but is also reported at the time of diagnosis, due to the local evolution of the tumour.

Management of trismus and its consequences is currently mostly based on physiotherapy of maxillary constrictions in order to limit or decrease the reduction of mouth opening in these patients. Exercise protocols have been set up and evaluated in the literature, but with various results. The benefit of a physiotherapy intervention on trismus prevalence, mouth opening, and patients' quality of life has not yet been shown.

Our hypothesis is that at least 30% of patients treated with radiochemotherapy are affected by trismus. According to the nutrition national recommendations in oncology, patients the most at-risk of loco-regional complications are those who receive radiotherapy doses of 54Gy or more in the oropharynx and concomitant chemotherapy.

It is thus essential to provide these patients with an early and preventive management of trismus and its consequences, during the whole duration of the treatment.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The management of trismus and its side effects is essentially based on a re-education of maxillary constrictions to limit or reduce the loss of mouth opening in patients. Exercise protocols are in place and have been evaluated in the literature with discordant results. The beneficial effect of a rehabilitation program on the prevalence of trismus, oral opening and quality of life of patients is not yet clearly demonstrated.

Three studies did not show any significant beneficial effect of rehabilitation programs nor on the prevalence of trismus or the quality of life of patients. A 2014 randomized trial showed no benefit from a passive exercise program on trismus prevention and oral opening. Another 2011 study compared 374 patients, a control group and an intervention group following language mobility exercises, rehabilitation supervised by a physiotherapist and specific trismus prevention exercises with the help of a doctor. specific tool (Jaw Trainer) during and after radiotherapy. A third, more recent, randomized study evaluated the effect of a very comprehensive rehabilitation program consisting of a 45-minute session per week of rehabilitation with a physiotherapist, 7 exercises to be performed 5 times a day at home supplemented by chewing. chewing gum 5 times a day. These last two studies nonetheless concluded the importance of carrying out other work on the subject by working on the objectives of the studies, on the tools used, and on the implementation of the exercise program.

Also, an other study cited above does not show a significant difference in mouth opening between the two rehabilitation groups, but analyzes the adhesion and shows that it is significantly higher (59 versus 41 days) in the standard rehabilitation group, less burdensome for patients. Thus, the issue of patient adherence to active rehabilitation is real and essential to take into account in studies assessing the effect of a rehabilitation program on oral opening.

The prevalence of trismus as well as its management in physiotherapy and the effectiveness of a rehabilitation program are not clearly documented in France. Our hypothesis is that currently at least 30% of patients treated by radiochemotherapy are affected by a trismus. According to national oncology nutrition guidelines, the patients most at risk for locoregional complications are those who receive oropharyngeal ≥ 54 Gray radiotherapy doses, plus concomitant chemotherapy.

It seems essential to offer these patients early and preventive management of this symptom and its consequences, throughout the duration of treatment.

This study is all the more relevant as the progress of treatment of upper aero-digestive tract cancers have allowed an improvement in survival rates, with an increase in the number of patients living with sequelae related to treatments.

The major benefit for patients will be a decrease in the loss of mouth opening during and after treatment, with the consequent improvement of the criteria of well-being and quality of life: the resumption of a normal diet, a decrease the duration of artificial nutrition, better oral hygiene, improved speech and the recovery of mimicry. All this in order to accelerate the return to the most normal social and professional life possible.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

175

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • France
      • Amiens, France, 80054
        • CHU d'Amiens
      • Avignon, France, 84918
        • Institut Sainte Catherine
      • Clermont-Ferrand, France, 63011
        • Centre Jean Perrin
      • Montpellier, France, 34298
        • Centre Regional de Lutte Contre le Cancer - Centre Val d'Aurelle
      • Saint-Pierre, France, 97448
        • CHU de la Réunion
    • Gard
      • Nîmes, Gard, France, 30900
        • ONCOGARD

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Epidermoid carcinoma of the buccal cavity, oropharynx or type 1, 2 or 3 carcinoma of cavum according to the WHO classification.
  • Radiotherapy (≥ 54Gy in the oropharynx) and concomitant chemotherapy (including targeted therapies) with or without surgery.
  • Patients ≥ 18 years old, understanding French.
  • Patients who gave their informed consent prior to the study

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Disease and/or trauma with an effect on jaw mobility with permanent trismus.
  • Psychiatric non-stabilized comorbidity.
  • Lack of the median and lateral incisors.
  • Metastatic patient.
  • Legal inability or limited legal capacity.
  • Medical or psychological conditions inducing incapacity of the subject to complete the study or give his/her consent.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Interventional Step
The interventional step will comprise the same follow-up as the observational step, except for the addition of an early and preventive care, conducted by a specialized physiotherapist using an active exercise handbook elaborated with the patient's therapeutic education transversal Unit (Utep). This aims at increasing the patient's adhesion to the program and to limit the reduction of mouth opening and its consequences ( Trismus rehabilitation)
Behavioral: Trismus rehabilitation

The patient will be followed-up by a physiotherapist during all the whole radiotherapy treatment, with short 15-min sessions, twice a week. He/she will be trained to perform regularly and by him/herself the preventive/rehabilitation exercises than the patient will do twice a day until the end of the radiotherapy treatment. The patient will then continue, in an autonomous manner, with his/her rehabilitation.

In case of trismus occurrence, the physiotherapist will advise the patient to add a passive tool to the active exercises (Jaw Trainer, Therabite, tongue depressors,…) in order to strengthen the stretching.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Trismus prevalence
Time Frame: 10 weeks after the end of radiochemotherapy
The mouth opening is measured by the distance between the upper left median incisive (n°21) and the lower left median incisive (n°31) with the Therabite Range of Motion Scale. Trismus is defined as a mouth opening of less than 35mm.
10 weeks after the end of radiochemotherapy

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Institut du Cancer de Montpellier - Val d'Aurelle

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: kerstin faravel, Institut Régional du Cancer de Montpellier

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

October 20, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

February 6, 2025

Study Completion (Estimated)

September 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 4, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 6, 2019

First Posted (Actual)

June 7, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 25, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 11, 2025

Last Verified

February 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • ICM-URC 2016-08

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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