Study results from ASCO ‘exciting’ for patients with head and neck, lung cancer

Several studies of treatment options for cancers previously believed by physicians to be unresponsive to immunotherapy appeared to produce positive data in patients with lung, and head and neck cancer, according to Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD, FACS, chief of the division of head and neck surgery at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Patients with head and neck cancer have had few available treatment options in the past in the recurrent metastatic setting, but several studies presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting may add a treatment option to a physician’s armamentarium, according to Ferris.

One of those studies – the phase 2 KEYNOTE-055 trial– evaluated the use of an anti–PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck) after progression on platinum and cetuximab (Erbitux; Bristol-Myers Squibb, Lilly) in patients with recurrent metastatic head and neck cancer.

The study results – presented by Joshua M. Bauml, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues – demonstrated that the use of pembrolizumab had clinically significant antitumor activity and was well tolerated in this patient population.

“Now we know that anti-PD-1 therapies work, extend survival and are more effective [in] HPV-positive patients,” Ferris told HemOnc Today.

Ferris also said that results presented at ASCO 2016 demonstrated that dual targeted therapy with nivolumab (Opdivo, Bristol-Myers Squibb) and ipilimumab (Yervoy, Bristol-Myers Squibb) produced very high response rates in patients with lung cancer – another tumor previously believed to be immunogenic – and may lead to high overall survival rates.

Matthew D. Hellmann, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues presented results of the CheckMate 012 trial which demonstrated that the use of the combination therapy produced a median PFS of 10.6 months and produced 29% of severe treatment related adverse events in 31 patients.

These novel advances are creating an “exciting” time in the treatment of cancers, according to Ferris.

“What we’re finding is that there’s a tremendous enthusiasm [around] positive results from immunotherapy from tumors not felt to be previously immunogenic, and that combinations – building on the platform of anti-PD-1 – will be very promising and extend the lives of our patients,” he said. – by Ryan McDonald

References:

Bauml JM, et al. Abstract 6011. Presented at: ASCO Annual Meeting; June 3-7, 2016; Chicago.

Hellmann MD, et al. Abstract 3001. Presented at: ASCO Annual Meeting; June 3-7, 2016; Chicago.

Disclosure: Ferris reports serving on an advisory board for AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck.