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RecruitingNCT06798922OPTIFLAPUpdated Oct 27, 2026

Flap Sparing in Postoperative Radiotherapy of Oral Cavity Cancers

A Phase 3 interventional study of Standard post-operative radiotherapy without flap sparing (current practice) and Post-operative radiotherapy with flap sparing in Oral Cavity Carcinoma, Flap and Radiotherapy, Adjuvant, sponsored by Centre Francois Baclesse. Recruiting at 30 sites in France. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-10-27.

Sponsored by Centre Francois Baclesse · Phase 3, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Mar 2025; still recruiting 1 year 8 months later.
Updated Oct 27, 2026Eligibility revisedGo to Updates ↓
Phase
Phase 3
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
348
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Patients with oral cavity cancer treated by reconstructive surgery with a flap.

Patients will be treated in the study for :

  • Experimental arm: Post-operative radiotherapy with flap sparing
  • Control arm: Standard post-operative radiotherapy without flap sparing (current practice) Radiotherapy by IMRT using photons or proton therapy (IMPT)
Read the detailed description

Patients with oral cavity cancer treated by reconstructive surgery with a flap.

Patients will be treated in the study for :

  • Experimental arm: Post-operative radiotherapy with flap sparing
  • Control arm: Standard post-operative radiotherapy without flap sparing (current practice) Radiotherapy by IMRT using photons or proton therapy (IMPT) Our purpose is to demonstrate the feasibility of sparing surgical flaps from radiotherapy, in order to reduce toxicity while maintaining local disease control.
02

Conditions studied

  • Oral Cavity Carcinoma
  • Flap
  • Radiotherapy, Adjuvant
  • Reconstruction Surgery

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Keywords

  • protontherapy
  • flap
  • oral cavity carnicoma
  • radiotherapy
  • IMRT
03

In context

Mouth Neoplasms

446 studies on the registry are indexed under Mouth Neoplasms; 130 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 348 is above the median of 60 across 313 interventional studies indexed under Mouth Neoplasms.

Browse Mouth Neoplasms studies →

Lead sponsor

Centre Francois Baclesse is the lead sponsor of 110 studies on the registry; 26 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

The criteria were revised on the registry on Oct 27, 2026. See what changed

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Patient aged 18 years or older
  • Performance Status 0-2
  • Patient with oral cavity cancer (soft tissue or soft tissue-bone flap), treated by reconstructive surgery with a flap. Oropharynx cancer whose flap extends significantly into the oral cavity may be included in the study
  • Quality of resection with margins > 1 mm
  • Patient candidate to post-operative radiotherapy (Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) or proton therapy)
  • Concomitant chemotherapy is allowed (stratification parameter)
  • Perioperative immunotherapy is allowed ( and/or adjuvant setting)
  • Patient must have signed a written form prior to any trial specific procedures
  • Patient affiliated to the social security system

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Local flap (small size limiting IMRT modulation potential)
  • History of radiotherapy of head and neck area
  • disease
  • History of other within the previous 3 years (except for appropriately treated in-situ cervix carcinoma and non-melanoma skin carcinoma)
  • Simultaneous participation in another clinical study may compromise the conduct of this study.
  • Pregnant or lactating women
  • Patient assessed by the investigator to be unable or unwilling to comply with the requirements of the protocol
  • Patient deprived of freedom or under guardianship
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(4)

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.

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.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Metastases

Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.

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.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 3
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
348 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Standard arm

    Standard IMRT or proton therapy practice, usual CTV definition

    Radiation: Standard post-operative radiotherapy without flap sparing (current practice)

  • Experimental
    Experimental arm

    IMRT or proton therapy with flap sparing

    Radiation: Post-operative radiotherapy with flap sparing

Interventions

  • RadiationStandard post-operative radiotherapy without flap sparing (current practice)

    Standard post-operative radiotherapy without flap sparing (current practice)

  • RadiationPost-operative radiotherapy with flap sparing

    Post-operative radiotherapy with flap sparing

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. loco-regional control rate

    To evaluate whether flap sparing yields non-inferior 2-year loco-regional control rate as flap-agnostic radiotherapy (as per standard routine practice) in completely resected oral cavity carcinomas undergoing postoperative radiotherapy

    Time frame: 2 years after the end of postoperative radiotherapy

Secondary outcomes

  1. Proportion of patients with acute and late Ear-Nose-Throat (ENT) toxicities

    Rate of Ear-Nose-Throat (ENT) toxicities among cavity cancer patients with a flap, defined as the proportion of oral cavity cancer patients with at least two ENT toxicities grade ≥ 2 according to NCI-CTCAE v5.0

    Time frame: within 12 months after postoperative radiotherapy

07

Study locations

1 of 30 sites recruiting
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Thariat J, Leconte A, Lequesne J, Vela A, Carsuzaa F, Dejean C, Renard S, Pereira S, Lebars S, Nadin L, Plisson L, Bastit V, Woisard V, Hervieu-Klisnick Z, Lasne-Cardon A, Clarisse B. Flap sparing in postoperative radiotherapy versus standard flap-agnostic radiotherapy of oral cavity cancers (OPTIFLAP): protocol for a de-escalation, randomised, non-inferiority, phase III trial. BMJ Open. 2025 Sep 14;15(9):e109094. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-109094. PubMed 40953868 ↗
09

Updates

1 registry update since Sep 25, 2026
Eligibility
1 inclusion criterion added
What changed in the criteria
Inclusion criteria
  • AddedPerioperative immunotherapy is allowed (neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant setting)
Oct 27, 2026
Show all 1 update
  1. Oct 27, 2026
    Eligibility 1 inclusion criterion added
    What changed in the criteria
    Inclusion criteria
    • AddedPerioperative immunotherapy is allowed (neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant setting)
    + 1 other change: verification date

From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06798922
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jan 29, 2025
Start date
Mar 1, 2025
Primary completion
Mar 1, 2031 (estimated)
Completion
Mar 1, 2034 (estimated)
Last update
Oct 27, 2026

Study contacts

Juliette THARIAT, Professor
Contact
j.thariat@baclesse.unicancer.fr
33231455050

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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