Head & Neck Cancer

BeiGene’s press release details the positive progression-free survival data observed with the combination of tislelizumab plus chemotherapy compared with placebo plus chemotherapy for patients with recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal cancer.

For the detection of oral squamous cell carcinoma and oropharyngeal cancer, a novel technology has been granted breakthrough device designation by the FDA.

The phase 2 trial showed that tipifarnib was effective for patients with metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who have limited therapeutic options available.

Docetaxel in combination with cisplatin and cetuximab did not significantly improve overall survival compared with platinum chemotherapy plus fluorouracil and cetuximab but maintained a favorable safety profile.

The FDA recently granted approval to a new dosing regimen for cetuximab to treat patients with KRAS wild-type, EGFR-expressing colorectal cancer or head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Despite the success of immune checkpoint blockade in the treatment of recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, the use of the PD-L1 inhibitor avelumab failed to prolong progression-free survival for patients with locally advanced disease.

Exelixis recently announced that cabozantinib received a breakthrough therapy designation from the FDA based on data from the COSMIC-311 trial for the treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer.

Given the current study findings, investigators suggested intratherapy personalization of chemoradiotherapy may possibly facilitate marked de-escalation of radiotherapy in patients with HPV-related oropharyngeal cancers.

The breakthrough therapy designation was based on preliminary activity reported in the phase 2 RUN-HN clinical trial, which evaluated tipifarnib in patients with recurrent or metastatic HRAS-mutant head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

CancerNetwork® spoke with the CEO of Nanobiotix and an assistant professor of Oncology at John Hopkins Medicine to learn more regarding the potential of the radio enhancer NBTXR3.

OmniSeq is partnering with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to employ a gene expression assay investigating the potential for personalized immunotherapy combinations for patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

The phase 3 KESTREL trial demonstrated that combination treatment with durvalumab plus tremelimumab did not display an overall survival benefit in “all-comer” patients with metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma versus the EXTREME regimen.

Data from this international study further developed the field of head and neck cancers, elaborating on contributions from key cancer-associated genes, proteins, and signaling pathways.

Investigators found that the number of metastatic lymph nodes and the presence of extranodal extension are complementary for predicting disease-specific survival in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, suggesting the necessity of incorporating these factors into staging systems.

A study found that patients without recurrence of their oropharyngeal cancer at 5 years who were treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy and had less tobacco exposure experienced optimal survival, but still had poorer outcomes when compared with the general population.

A group launched by the Global Health Research Unit of the National Institute for Health Research, which is currently seeking to determine the best surgical practices for cancer treatments, found that there is no additional risk of contracting COVID-19 for patients with cancer of the head and neck.

“This might raise the potential of being able to detect disease recurrence much earlier than current clinical practice,” said Thomas Weiland, MD.

In working patients with head and neck cancer receiving radiotherapy, weight loss and an increase in pain, fatigue, and ECOG status were all found to be significantly associated with reductions in working days per week.

According to this study, patients with locoregionally advanced head and neck cancer with a higher risk of cancer progression relative to competing mortality, defined by a higher ω score, selectively benefit from more intensive treatment.

Researchers found that Black non-Hispanic patients with head and neck cancer present with later stage at diagnosis and receive less treatment following their diagnosis compared to patients in all other racial and ethnic groups.

A combination of peritumoral radiomics features appeared to improve the predictive performance of intratumoral radiomics to estimate pathological complete response after neoadjuvant chemoradiation in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

The first-in-class inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) antagonist significantly improved overall survival in patients with LA-SCCHN.

Researchers indicated that these findings suggest, “an ENE detection biomarker based on TP53 mutation detection would represent an enormous clinical benefit.”

The tool was developed “with the objective of providing transparency and facilitating surgical prioritization for treatment providers.”

Researchers found that transoral robotic surgery “seems safe and effective compared to what’s been the standard of care for many years” for patients with early-stage oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.