Radiation Therapy and Docetaxel in Treating Patients With HPV-Related Oropharyngeal Cancer

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To assess the cumulative incidence of local/regional failure at 2 years after study registration. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To characterize the rate of acute grade 3 or higher functional mucosal adverse events (up to 1 month post-radiation therapy \[XRT\]) associated with adjuvant docetaxel + hyperfractionated radiotherapy (key secondary endpoint). II. To assess changes in overall survival, disease-free survival, distant failure rates, and quality of life (QOL) associated with adjuvant docetaxel and hyperfractionated radiation. III. To characterize other acute adverse events (up to 1 month post-XRT) and late grade 3 or higher non-hematologic adverse events (up to 2 years post-XRT) associated with adjuvant docetaxel + hyperfractionated radiotherapy. TERTIARY OBJECTIVES: I. To determine the genetic alterations of oropharynx tumor specimens and the detection rate of corresponding cell-free deoxyribonucleic acid (cfDNA) in the pre-surgical, post-surgical, and post-radiation blood of oropharynx cancer patients. OUTLINE: Patients receive docetaxel intravenously (IV) over 1 hour on days 1 and 8 and undergo hyperfractionated intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) twice daily (BID) 5 days a week on days 1-12 for a total of 20 fractions. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up at 14 days, 1 month, every 3 months for 2 years, every 6 months for 1 year and then annually for 2 years.