This randomized phase I/II trial studies the side effects and best way to give lyophilized black raspberries in preventing oral cancer in high-risk patients previously diagnosed with stage I-IV or in situ head and neck cancer. Chemoprevention is the use of certain drugs to keep cancer from forming. The use of lyophilized black raspberries may prevent oral cancer. Studying samples of oral cavity scrapings, blood, urine, and saliva in the laboratory from patients receiving lyophilized black raspberries may help doctors learn more about changes that occur in DNA and the effect of lyophilized back raspberries on biomarkers.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Determine the adherence of post-surgical head and neck (HN) cancer patients to clinical trial design expectations and define tolerability and potential adverse effects of long-term black raspberry administration in this patient cohort.

II. Determine the effects of dose and delivery vehicle on the degree of uptake of black raspberry components in target oral tissues of post-surgical HN cancer patients over time and determine the relationships between adherence/exposure data and uptake.

III. Determine the ability of black raspberries to modulate patterns of gene expression within key regulatory pathways in "at-risk normal" oral mucosa of post-surgical HN cancer patients that would favor the inhibition, delay or reversal of oral carcinogenesis.

IV. Determine the persistence of modulation of "berry-responsive genes" for 2 years following commencement of black raspberry treatment and preliminarily define rate of recurrence and second primary oral cancers in a former oral cancer patient sub-cohort.

OUTLINE: Patients are randomized to 1 of 4 treatment arms.

ARM I: Patients receive lozenge placebo orally (PO) four times daily (QID).

ARM II: Patients receive lyophilized black raspberries lozenge PO QID.

ARM III: Patients receive Saliva Substitute placebo PO QID.

ARM IV: Patients receive lyophilized black raspberries Saliva Substitute PO QID.

In all arms, treatment continues for 6 months. Oral cavity scrapings, blood, urine, and saliva samples are collected periodically for laboratory analyses.

After completion of study treatment, some patients are followed up at weeks 1-5 and then at 2, 6, 12, and 18 months.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Eligible subjects includes all adult HN cancer patients who have been previously diagnosed with Stage 1-4 and in-situ squamous cell carcinoma within the past 36 months (mos); with or without further adjuvant therapy and have been determined to be disease free at the time of consent
• Patients must be able to take nutrition/medications orally
• Have no prior history of intolerance or allergy to berry or berry-containing products
• Patients taking cyclooxygenase (COX)-1/COX-2 inhibitors (Indomethacin, Ibuprofen, celebrex) chronically, herbal supplements, who cannot be taken off the medication/supplement due to their clinical condition are eligible to participate in the study but should document daily doses of these medications in their logbooks

Exclusion Criteria:

• History of intolerance (including hypersensitivity or allergy) to berry or berry-containing products
• Inability to take oral nutrition/liquids or history of aspiration pneumonia
• Pregnant women: Although there are no known adverse effects of black raspberries upon the fetus, if patients become pregnant during period of lyophilized black raspberries (LBR) administration, then LBR will be discontinued and patient will be removed from the study; we should however emphasize, given this is a food based-study, that risks are likely extremely low even though a participant should become pregnant; as such, we are not recommending active contraception for women, but rather if participants become pregnant, that they notify their study doctor, and that they will likely be removed from study; there are no expected or logical risks if men were to father a child, and as such, no contraception will be recommended for men
• Inability to grant informed consent
• Strict Vegetarians will be excluded from the study; it was found that consuming one portion per day of fruit or vegetables resulted in a significant decrease in oral cancer incidence; in those persons consuming multiple portions each day, there was a 50% reduction in risk; we assume that strict vegetarians will consume multiple portions each day of foods with chemopreventive activity and therefore inclusion of these individuals would have a negative impact on the study; there are several reports in the literature that herbal or multivitamin/mineral supplements have no effect on oral cancer incidence