HEAD & NECK CANCERS

Patients with metastatic or recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck experienced a 32% reduction in the risk of death compared with investigator's choice of therapy, according to updated findings with a minimum of 2 years of follow-up from the phase III CheckMate-141 study.

The FDA has placed a clinical hold on a phase I/II study of axalimogene filolisbac and durvalumab, according to an announcement by Advaxis, the manufacturer of axalimogene filolisbac, in a quarterly earnings report.The study is evaluating the combination in patients with advanced, recurrent or refractory HPV-associated cervical cancer and HPV-associated head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Lung Cancer

The American Physical Therapy Association has selected Jean Kozempel, PT, DPT, MS, as the recipient of the 2017 Oncology Section President’s Award. This award honors physical therapists who are proving themselves to be pioneers in the oncology field.

Tipifarnib demonstrated encouraging antitumor activity among patients with <em>HRAS</em>-mutant head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), according to preliminary results of an ongoing phase II proof-of-concept trial (NCT02383927).

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy with bb2121 demonstrated an objective response rate of 94% in patients with&nbsp;relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, according to findings from a dose-escalation study. The senior study author, James N. Kochenderfer, MD, presented updated findings from the study during the 2017 ASH Annual Meeting, and commented that 89% of patients had a very good partial response or better, and 56% of patients had a complete remission.&nbsp;<br /> &nbsp;

Head and neck squamous cell cancer is relatively uncommon in the United States compared to other malignancies like non-small&ndash;cell lung cancer and breast cancer. There are about 500,000 cases worldwide every year.

Jennifer Eads, MD, assistant professor of medicine, senior clinical instructor of medicine, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, discusses the difficulties in diagnosing G3 neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) and neuroendocrine carcinomas (NECs), and the varying treatment approaches for these subsets of patients.