A Phase 2 interventional study of Best Practice and Biospecimen Collection in Clinical Stage I HPV-Mediated (p16-Positive) Oropharyngeal Carcinoma AJCC v8, Clinical Stage II HPV-Mediated (p16-Positive) Oropharyngeal Carcinoma AJCC v8 and Clinical Stage III HPV-Mediated (p16-Positive) Oropharyngeal Carcinoma AJCC v8, sponsored by NRG Oncology. Recruiting at 153 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-08-17.
Sponsored by NRG Oncology · Phase 2, Interventional, and Supportive care
This phase II trial compares the effectiveness of adding BMX-001 to usual symptom management versus usual symptom management alone for reducing oral mucositis in patients who are receiving chemoradiation for head and neck cancer. Oral mucositis (inflammation and mouth sores) is a common side effect of chemoradiation that can cause pain and difficulty swallowing. Usual management of these side effects typically consists of using mouth rinses and pain medications during treatment and for several weeks after completion of treatment. BMX-001 neutralizes harmful substances in the body, preventing damage to macromolecules such as DNA and minimizes free radical-related toxicity in normal tissues. Adding BMX-001 to usual symptom management may be more effective than usual symptom management alone at reducing oral mucositis in patients receiving chemoradiation for head and neck cancer.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:
I. To compare the incidence of severe oral mucositis (SOM) between manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) mimetic BMX-001 (BMX-001) and placebo, defined as >= grade 3 per World Health Organization (WHO) criteria from the start of radiation through 4 weeks after completion of study treatment, with additional assessments at 6, 8 and 12 weeks after completion of study treatment.
SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:
I. To compare the duration of SOM in the BMX-001 arm versus (vs.) placebo arm. II. To assess the difference between arms in the Oral Mucositis Weekly Questionnaire-Head and Neck (OMWQ-HN) change score from baseline to 4 weeks after the end of chemoradiation.
III. To describe the incidence and severity of xerostomia and radiation dermatitis, as measured by Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) version (v)5.0, in both arms.
IV. To compare the duration of radiation dermatitis in the BMX-001 arm vs. placebo arm.
V. To describe toxicity, as measured by CTCAE v5.0 and Patient Reported Outcome (PRO)-CTCAE, in both arms.
EXPLORATORY OBJECTIVES:
I. To assess the between arm difference in progression-free survival (PFS). II. To assess the between arm difference in overall survival (OS). III. Data demonstrating improvement in pain, as measured by reduction in narcotic use between BMX-001 versus usual care.
IV. Collect serum and plasma for future translational research analyses.
OUTLINE: Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 arms.
ARM 1: Patients receive cisplatin once weekly (QW) or once every 3 weeks (Q3W) and undergo image-guided intensity-modulated radiation therapy once daily (QD) 5 days per week for 7 weeks per standard of care (SOC). In addition to usual symptom management, patients receive placebo subcutaneously (SC) as early as 96 hours and no later than one hour prior to their first dose of radiation therapy, and as early as 96 hours and no later than 48 hours prior to first dose of cisplatin. Patients then receive placebo SC twice a week (BIW) for 8 weeks (16 doses). Patients also undergo computed tomography (CT) and/or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on study and may optionally undergo collection of blood, serum, and/or plasma throughout the study.
ARM 2: Patients receive cisplatin QW or Q3W and undergo image-guided intensity-modulated radiation therapy QD 5 days per week for 7 weeks per SOC. In addition to usual symptom management, patients receive BMX-001 SC as early as 96 hours and no later than one hour prior to their first dose of radiation therapy, and as early as 96 hours and no later than 48 hours prior to first dose of cisplatin. Patients then receive BMX-001 SC BIW for 8 weeks (16 doses). Patients also undergo CT and/or MRI on study and may optionally undergo collection of blood, serum, and/or plasma throughout the study.
After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up at 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months.
369 studies on the registry are indexed under Oropharyngeal Neoplasms; 103 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 98 is above the median of 52 across 265 interventional studies indexed under Oropharyngeal Neoplasms.
Browse Oropharyngeal Neoplasms studies →NRG Oncology is the lead sponsor of 72 studies on the registry; 25 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Inclusion Criteria:
No medical necessity for medications listed as prohibited.
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Neoadjuvant treatment is given before the main treatment (usually surgery), often to shrink a tumour. Adjuvant treatment is given after it, to lower the chance of the cancer coming back.
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.
It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: long-term lung disease that makes it hard to breathe out, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
On an ECG, the QT interval is the time the heart’s lower chambers take to activate electrically and recover in each beat. QTc is that time adjusted for heart rate (QTcF by Fridericia’s formula, QTcB by Bazett’s). Some medicines lengthen it, and a long QTc can raise the risk of a dangerous heart rhythm.
The study may name a correction formula and a limit in milliseconds, often around 450–480.
A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.
The US National Cancer Institute’s scale of how severe an adverse event is — any unwanted medical event during a study, such as a symptom, an illness or an abnormal test result, whether or not a treatment caused it. Whether it did is judged separately.
“Side effects of earlier treatment resolved to grade 1 or less” means they have settled to mild or gone.
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).
Adjuvant and neoadjuvant
Neoadjuvant treatment is given before the main treatment (usually surgery), often to shrink a tumour. Adjuvant treatment is given after it, to lower the chance of the cancer coming back.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Histologically or cytologically confirmed
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Metastases
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Absolute neutrophil count (ANC)
The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.
It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Platelets
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hemoglobin (Hb)
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Creatinine clearance (CrCl)
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Bilirubin
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ULN (upper limit of normal)
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ALT and AST (liver enzymes)
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Corticosteroids (steroids)
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Clinically significant
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
NYHA class (heart failure)
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
COPD
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: long-term lung disease that makes it hard to breathe out, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
QT and QTc
On an ECG, the QT interval is the time the heart’s lower chambers take to activate electrically and recover in each beat. QTc is that time adjusted for heart rate (QTcF by Fridericia’s formula, QTcB by Bazett’s). Some medicines lengthen it, and a long QTc can raise the risk of a dangerous heart rhythm.
The study may name a correction formula and a limit in milliseconds, often around 450–480.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ECG (electrocardiogram)
A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
CTCAE grade
The US National Cancer Institute’s scale of how severe an adverse event is — any unwanted medical event during a study, such as a symptom, an illness or an abnormal test result, whether or not a treatment caused it. Whether it did is judged separately.
“Side effects of earlier treatment resolved to grade 1 or less” means they have settled to mild or gone.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Investigational drug or device
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Excipients
The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Childbearing potential
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Postmenopausal
Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Patients receive cisplatin QW or Q3W and undergo image-guided intensity-modulated radiation therapy QD 5 days per week for 7 weeks per SOC. In addition to usual symptom management, patients receive placebo SC as early as 96 hours and no later than one hour prior to their first dose of radiation therapy, and as early as 96 hours and no later than 48 hours prior to first dose of cisplatin. Patients then receive placebo SC BIW for 8 weeks (16 doses). Patients also undergo CT and/or MRI on study and may optionally undergo collection of blood, serum, and/or plasma throughout the study.
Other: Best Practice · Procedure: Biospecimen Collection · Drug: Cisplatin · Procedure: Computed Tomography · Radiation: Image Guided Radiation Therapy · Radiation: Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy · Procedure: Magnetic Resonance Imaging · Drug: Placebo Administration · Other: Questionnaire Administration
Patients receive cisplatin QW or Q3W and undergo image-guided intensity-modulated radiation therapy QD 5 days per week for 7 weeks per SOC. In addition to usual symptom management, patients receive BMX-001 SC as early as 96 hours and no later than one hour prior to their first dose of radiation therapy, and as early as 96 hours and no later than 48 hours prior to first dose of cisplatin. Patients then receive BMX-001 SC BIW for 8 weeks (16 doses). Patients also undergo CT and/or MRI on study and may optionally undergo collection of blood, serum, and/or plasma throughout the study.
Other: Best Practice · Procedure: Biospecimen Collection · Drug: Cisplatin · Procedure: Computed Tomography · Radiation: Image Guided Radiation Therapy · Radiation: Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy · Procedure: Magnetic Resonance Imaging · Drug: MnSOD Mimetic BMX-001 · Other: Questionnaire Administration
Receive usual symptom management
Also known as: standard of care, standard therapy
Undergo collection of blood, serum, and/or plasma samples
Also known as: Biological Sample Collection, Biospecimen Collected, Specimen Collection
Given cisplatin
Also known as: Abiplatin, Blastolem, Briplatin, CDDP, Cis-diammine-dichloroplatinum, Cis-diamminedichloridoplatinum, Cis-diamminedichloro Platinum (II), Cis-diamminedichloroplatinum, Cis-dichloroammine Platinum (II), Cis-platinous Diamine Dichloride, Cis-platinum, Cis-platinum II, Cis-platinum II Diamine Dichloride, Cismaplat, Cisplatina, Cisplatinum, Cisplatyl, Citoplatino, Citosin, Cysplatyna, DDP, Lederplatin, Metaplatin, Neoplatin, Peyrone's Chloride, Peyrone's Salt, Placis, Plastistil, Platamine, Platiblastin, Platiblastin-S, Platinex, Platinol, Platinol- AQ, Platinol-AQ, Platinol-AQ VHA Plus, Platinoxan, Platinum, Platinum Diamminodichloride, Platiran, Platistin, Platosin
Undergo CT
Also known as: CAT, CAT Scan, Computed Axial Tomography, Computerized Axial Tomography, Computerized axial tomography (procedure), Computerized Tomography, Computerized Tomography (CT) scan, CT, CT Scan, Diagnostic CAT Scan, Diagnostic CAT Scan Service Type, tomography
Undergo image-guided radiation therapy
Also known as: IGRT, Image Guided Radiotherapy, image-guided radiation therapy, Image-Guided Radiotherapy
Undergo intensity-modulated radiation therapy
Also known as: IMRT, Intensity modulated radiation therapy (procedure), Intensity Modulated RT, Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy, Radiation, Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy
Undergo MRI
Also known as: Magnetic Resonance, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Magnetic resonance imaging (procedure), Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scan, Medical Imaging, Magnetic Resonance / Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, MR, MR Imaging, MRI, MRI Scan, MRIs, NMR Imaging, NMRI, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging, sMRI, Structural MRI
Given SC
Also known as: BMX-001, Manganese (III) ortho N-Butoxyethylpyridylporphyrin, Manganese Butoxyethyl Pyridyl Porphyrin, Mitochondrial Manganese Superoxide Dismutatse Mimetic BMX-001, Mn(III) meso-tetrakis(N-n-butoxyethylpyridinium-2-yl)porphyrin, MnTnBuOE-3-PyP 5+
Given SC
Ancillary studies
Incidence of severe oral mucositis (SOM)
Proportion of patients with reported SOM \>= grade 3 per World Health Organization criteria.
Time frame: From start of radiation through 4 weeks after completion of study treatment
Duration of SOM
Defined from first determination of \>= grade 3 oral mucositis (OM) to the first instance of non-SOM (=\< grade 2), without subsequent instance of \>= grade 3 within the following 4 weeks.
Time frame: Up to 12 weeks after completion of chemoradiation
Time to SOM
Defined from date of randomization to date of first determination of \>= grade 3 OM.
Time frame: Up to 12 weeks after completion of chemoradiation
Incidence and duration of xerostomia and radiation dermatitis
The proportion of patients with any grade and grade ≥ 3 xerostomia and radiation dermatitis, separately. Duration is measured from the first determination of radiation dermatitis or xerostomia, separately, (grade ≥ 1 as measured by Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events \[CTCAE\] version \[v\] 5.0) to the first report of none (grade 0).
Time frame: Up to 12 weeks after completion of chemoradiation
Incidence of toxicity
Adverse events (AEs) will be graded by the physician-reported CTCAE v5.0 and also measured using the Patient Reported Outcome-CTCAE. Counts of all AEs by grade will be provided by treatment arm.
Time frame: Up to 24 months after completion of chemoradiation
Patient reported oral mucositis
Will be measured by the Oral Mucositis Weekly Questionnaire (OMWQ). Decline within patients is defined using a minimally important difference of 7.
Time frame: Up to 24 months after completion of chemoradiation
Pain improvement
Pain improvement will be measured by opioid use collected in morphine equivalent doses.
Time frame: Up to 24 months after completion of chemoradiation
Progression-free survival (PFS)
PFS will be calculated from the date of randomization until occurrence of local, regional (neck lymph nodes) or distant failure, or death. PFS rates will be estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Patients without an event will be censored at their last disease assessment.
Time frame: Up to 24 months after completion of chemoradiation
Overall survival (OS)
OS will be calculated from the date of randomization to death and estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Patients alive without an event will be censored at their last known follow-up time.
Time frame: Up to 24 months after completion of chemoradiation
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Plan to share: Yes — NCI is committed to sharing data in accordance with NIH policy. For more details on how clinical trial data is shared, access the link to the NIH data sharing policy page.
Data sharing details ↗ · grants.nih.gov
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Started Jun 2025 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Jan 2027, 18 months after the start.
Of 63 non-industry phase 2 interventional studies under Oropharyngeal Neoplasms, half reached primary completion within 60 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 49 and three quarters within 99. This study's planned 18 months is below that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 64 studies reached it within 63 months; a quarter within 49 and three quarters within 99.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.
No contact was published for this record. The registry link below has the sponsor’s details.
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Studies of the drug tested here: BMX-001
NRG Oncology