An overview diagram/schema for the Lymph-Spare clinical trial based on your grant proposal for Deutsche Krebshilfe: General Information Applicants Principal and corresponding applicant: Sebastian Zahnreich, PD Dr. rer. nat. et med. habil. University Medical Centre Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Department of Radiation Oncology and Radiation Therapy Langenbeckstraße 1, 55131 Mainz Phone: 06131 17-2860 E-Mail: zahnreic@uni-mainz.de Co-applicant: Justus Kaufmann, Dr. med. University Medical Centre Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Department of Radiation Oncology and Radiation Therapy Langenbeckstraße 1, 55131 Mainz Phone: 06131 17-6155 E-Mail: Justus.Kaufmann@unimedizin-mainz.de Project title Elective Lymph Node Sparing in Head and Neck Cancer Radio(immuno)therapy (Lymph-Spare) Key Words Head and neck cancer, elective nodal irradiation, lymph node sparing, immune checkpoint inhibitors, biomarker, lymphopenia Application type Initial application. Duration of the proposed project 3 years Application period 01/01/2027-31/12/2029 Summary Despite intensive multimodal therapy, the 5-year overall survival rate for patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (LA-HNSCC) remains below 50%. The recent KEYNOTE-689 trial established perioperative pembrolizumab in combination with adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) as a new standard of care. However, previous clinical trials combining immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) with RT have demonstrated little or no clinical See more