Amivantamab shrinks tumors in head and neck cancer trial

A new cancer treatment has shown unprecedented results in an international trial, completely eradicating tumors in some patients with advanced head and neck cancer who had exhausted all other options. The drug, amivantamab, is a triple-action injection developed by Johnson & Johnson.

In the trial, which involved 102 patients across 55 hospitals in 11 countries, tumors shrank or disappeared completely in 43 participants. This included 28 patients who saw significant tumor reduction and 15 whose tumors were eradicated altogether. The results were observed in patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, a form of cancer that had continued to grow despite prior immunotherapy and platinum-based chemotherapy.

Professor Kevin Harrington, a professor in biological cancer therapies at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London and a consultant oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, described the findings. He said these were unprecedentedly strong responses in patients whose disease had become resistant to both chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Harrington noted this is a group for whom treatment options are extremely limited and that the...