RATIONALE: Sargramostim may lessen symptoms of mucositis in patients receiving radiation therapy for head and neck cancer. It is not yet known if sargramostim is more effective than no treatment in reducing mucositis caused by radiation therapy.

PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to determine the effectiveness of sargramostim in decreasing mucositis in patients who are receiving radiation therapy for head and neck cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine the efficacy of sargramostim (GM-CSF) in terms of reducing the severity and expected duration of radiotherapy-induced oral mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer receiving radiotherapy.
• Determine the correlation between reduced mucosal injury and quality of life improvement in patients treated with this drug.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Patients are stratified according to concurrent cisplatin chemotherapy (yes vs no). Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms.

• Arm I: Patients receive radiotherapy once daily five days a week for 6-7 weeks. Patients also receive sargramostim (GM-CSF) subcutaneously (SC) three times a week (except on days if receiving concurrent cisplatin) beginning 1 week prior to radiotherapy and continuing until 2 weeks after completion of radiotherapy for a total of approximately 9 weeks.
• Arm II: Patients receive radiotherapy as in arm I. Patients also receive placebo SC on the same schedule as GM-CSF in arm I.

Quality of life is assessed at baseline, and then at 3, 6, and 12 months.

Patients are followed at 3, 6 and 11 months.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 126 patients (63 per arm) will be accrued within 1.2-1.4 years.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed head and neck carcinoma with planned external beam radiotherapy to include 50% of oropharynx, oral cavity, or both]
• Planned external beam radiotherapy of 60-70 Gy total dose to the primary tumor or standard ports for an unknown primary tumor
• Neck metastases from an unknown primary allowed if radiotherapy planned to at least 50% of the salivary gland at a dose of at least 50 Gy
• No T1-T2 glottic tumors
• No residual oral/oropharyngeal injury from prior chemotherapy

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

• Not specified

Performance status:

• Karnofsky 60-100%

Life expectancy:

• Not specified

Hematopoietic:

• Not specified

Hepatic:

• Not specified

Renal:

• Not specified

Other:

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• No allergy or idiosyncratic response to sargramostim (GM-CSF)
• HIV negative

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

• Not specified

Chemotherapy:

• See Disease Characteristics
• No concurrent chemotherapy other than cisplatin

Endocrine therapy:

• Not specified

Radiotherapy:

• See Disease Characteristics
• No prior radiotherapy to the head and neck

Surgery:

• Not specified

Other:

• No concurrent enrollment on other RTOG head and neck studies
• No concurrent oral care medications (e.g., amifostine, chlorhexidrine gluconate, sucralfate, or benzydamine HCl) during study radiotherapy
• No concurrent selective oral cavity decontamination (e.g., IB-367) during study radiotherapy