FDA Grants Nivolumab Priority Review in Head and Neck Cancer

Article

In this Medical News Minute, developed exclusively for Cancer Network, Dr. Bobby Lazzara discusses the recent priority review of nivolumab for use in metastatic head and neck cancer.

In this Medical News Minute, developed exclusively for Cancer Network, Dr. Bobby Lazzara discusses the recent priority review of nivolumab for use in recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer, based on results of the CheckMate-141 study.

The study found that nivolumab improved overall survival (7.5 vs 5.1 months) over investigator’s choice.

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The phase 3 NIVOSTOP trial evaluated an anti–PD-1 immunotherapy, nivolumab, in a patient population similar in the KEYNOTE-689 trial.
Opportunities to further reduce relapses include pembrolizumab-based combination therapy and evaluating the agent’s contribution before and after surgery.
For patients with locally advanced head and neck cancers, the current standard of care for curative therapy has a cure rate of less than 50%.
Treatment with toripalimab does not yield the same vascular toxicity seen with pembrolizumab in patients with advanced or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma, according to Barbara Burtness, MD.
Overall survival also appears to improve with toripalimab compared with chemotherapy among patients with metastatic or advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
head and neck cancer
head and neck cancer
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