London: An immunotherapy drug has been hailed as a potential 'game changer' after scientists found that it can greatly improve survival for patients with relapsed head and neck cancer, which are difficult to treat.
Nivolumab became the first treatment to extend survival in a phase III clinical trial for patients with head and neck cancer in whom chemotherapy had failed - and it did so with fewer side-effects than existing therapeutic options, said researchers from The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in the UK. More than double the number of patients taking nivolumab were alive after one year as those treated with chemotherapy, they said.
There are currently no other treatment options that improve the survival of patients with cisplatin-resistant relapsed or metastatic head and neck cancers.
This group of patients were expected to live less than six months, researchers said. The trial was led by Professor Kevin Harrington ICR and involved 20 research organisations from around the world.
"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," said Harrington. Of the 361 patients in the trial, 240 with relapsed or metastatic head and neck cancer were allocated to receive nivolumab and 121 to one of three different chemotherapies.
Patients received the chemotherapy drug docetaxel, which is the only treatment approved for advanced head and neck cancer by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). After one year of the study, 36 per cent of patients treated with nivolumab were still alive compared with 17 per cent for the comparator arm.
Median survival for patients on nivolumab was 7.5 months, compared with 5.1 months for chemotherapy. The survival benefit was more pronounced in patients whose tumours had tested positive for human papillomavirus (HPV). These patients survived an average of 9.1 months with nivolumab and 4.4 months with chemotherapy.
HPV-negative patients survived an average of 7.5 months with nivolumab and 5.8 with chemotherapy. Importantly, fewer patients experienced serious side-effects from taking nivolumab than with conventional treatment - only 13 per cent compared with 35 per cent of patients who received chemotherapy.
Patients given chemotherapy reported feeling physically, socially and emotionally worse off, whereas those who were given nivolumab remained stable during the course of treatment. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
