Drug offers hope to neck and head cancer sufferers

New immunotherapy treatment twice as effective as chemotherapy against aggressive form of cancer

An immunotherapy drug could soon offer hope to patients with currently untreatable head and neck cancers.

Nivolumab was hailed a potential game-changer after it was found to extend the lives of relapsed patients who had run out of therapy options.

After a year of treatment, 36% of trial patients treated with the drug were still alive compared with 17% of those given standard chemotherapy.

Patients with advanced head and neck cancers resistant to chemotherapy are notoriously difficult to treat and generally survive less than six months.

Trial participants treated with nivolumab typically survived for 7.5 months, and some for longer. Mid-range survival for patients on chemotherapy was 5.1 months.

The Phase III study, the last stage in the testing process before a new treatment is licensed, provided the first evidence of a drug improving survival in this group of patients.

Kevin Harrington of The Institute of Cancer Research, London, who led the British arm of the international trial, said: “Nivolumab could be a real game changer for patients with advanced head and neck cancer.

“This trial found that it can greatly extend life among a group of patients who have no existing treatment options, without worsening quality of life.

“Once it has relapsed or spread, head and neck cancer is extremely difficult to treat. So it’s great news that these results indicate we now have a new treatment that can significantly extend life, and I’m keen to see it enter the clinic as soon as possible.”

The treatment will have to be approved by the European Medicines Agency and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), which vets new therapies for cost effectiveness.

Of the 361 patients enrolled in the trial, 240 were given nivolumab while the remaining 121 received one of three different chemotherapies.

Patients whose tumours tested positive for the HPV virus, which is linked to cervical cancer and may be spread by oral sex, did especially well. They typically survived for 9.1 months, compared with 4.4 months when treated with chemotherapy.

The findings were simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (Esmo) conference in Copenhagen.

More than 600 new cases of head and neck cancer are diagnosed each year.

The human papillomavirus virus (HPV) is strongly linked to cervical cancers in women and head and neck cancers in men.

Beacuse of the low uptake in the HPV vaccine in Ireland, Ireland has been asked by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to participate in a meeting this week.

The HSE’s National Immunisation Office launched a HPV vaccination campaign in 2010, with the initial target group being girls aged 12 to 13 years.

Since then about 220,000 girls have been vaccinated. An initial shot is given followed by a second about six months later.

Vaccination rates peaked at 87% in 2014-15, but have fallen since.

Nivolumab is one of a new class of antibody drugs called checkpoint inhibitors that help the immune system fight cancer. It works by blocking signals from tumour cells that stop the immune system attacking.

Paul Workman, chief executive of the Institute of Cancer Research, said: “Nivolumab is one of a new wave of immunotherapies that are beginning to have an impact across cancer treatment.

“This phase III clinical trial expands the repertoire of nivolumab even further, showing that it is the first treatment to have significant benefits in relapsed head and neck cancer.”