MRI in Finding Hypoxia in Patients Undergoing Chemo and Radiation for Head and Neck Cancer

OBJECTIVES: * Determine the undertaken oxygen sensitive MRI for the detection of hypoxia in patients with Stage III-IV head and neck cancer. * Correlate MRI parameters with histology, gene expression, and plasma osteopontin. * Correlate tumor hypoxia measurements with patient prognosis and treatment response. OUTLINE: * Pre-therapy MRI: Patients undergo blood oxygen level dependant (BOLD) contrast MRI on room air breathing over 2 minutes and with oxygen gas over 15 minutes. Patients also undergo MR-spectroscopy over 15 minutes to measure choline and lactate markers, and dynamic contrast MRI with gadolinium contrast over 8 minutes. * Chemoradiotherapy: Patients receive platinum based chemotherapy every two weeks. Patients also undergo radiation therapy for 6 weeks. * Post-radiation MRI: Patients undergo MRI as before chemoradiotherapy. Blood and tumor samples are collected at baseline for biomarker analysis associated with tumor progression or response. After completion of study, patients are followed every 3 months for up to 1 year.