‘Really exciting’: Clinical trial finds injection eliminated tumours in some head and neck cancer patients

Cancer researchers report strong results for new head and neck cancer treatment. (Credit: Pexels)

A promising new cancer treatment, delivered through a simple injection under the skin, has demonstrated significant tumour shrinkage in patients with recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck cancer.

Scientists from the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) presented their findings from the research, known as the OrigAMI-4 trial, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) annual meeting Sunday.

The jab, called amivantamab, was given to people who had stopped responding to standard treatments.

Research shows the injection of amivantamab shrank tumours in 43 of the 102 patients, including 15 whose tumours disappeared completely.

Experts say the results of this clinical trial are promising.

“I think the bottom line is that new drugs, like amivantamab, are showing strong promise in HPV-negative head and neck cancers,” said Glenn J. Hanna, director of the Centre for Cancer Therapeutic Innovation at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Mass.

“This will hopefully improve response durability and hopefully improve survival and outcomes, so that many years are possible, even when recurrent metastatic disease occurs.”

Hanna says this treatment could benefit thousands of patients each year.

Amivantamab is a targeted cancer treatment designed to block several of the signals that help cancer cells grow and spread. It is made by Johnson & Johnson and is already used to treat certain types of lung cancer.

Unlike many cancer treatments that require an intravenous drip, amivantamab is given as a small injection under the skin, making treatment quicker and more convenient for patients.

It’s administered once every three weeks, and most side effects for patients in the trial were mild to moderate.

Doctors said fewer than one in 10 patients stopped treatment because of side effects.

Patients in the clinical trial, who received amivantamab, lived for a median of a year after starting treatment, despite having a form of cancer with very poor outcomes.

The release says the tumours started to respond within about six weeks, and patients had a median of a little more than six months before the cancer started to grow again.

“These are unprecedentedly strong responses in patients whose disease has become resistant to both chemotherapy and immunotherapy. This is a group of patients for whom treatment options are extremely limited, so seeing this level of benefit is very striking,” said Kevin Harrington, a professor of biological cancer therapies at the institute, in an ICR release.

Participant Carl Walsh, who is living with tongue cancer, said the treatment reduced his pain and swelling, and he no longer is experiencing the same life-impacting side effects that he had during chemotherapy.

“I was initially treated with both chemotherapy and immunotherapy, which unfortunately were not successful. At that point, I was recommended for the OrigAMI-4 trial. I’m now on my seventeenth cycle of treatment and I’m very pleased with the progress so far,” said the 56-year-old, who lives in Birmingham, U.K.

“I now feel able to live a normal life.”

The study excluded patients who had human papillomavirus (HPV) positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

Head and neck cancers that are not caused by HPV are usually harder to treat and have poorer responses to standard therapy, ICR said.

The patients in the trial were from 11 different countries and treated at 55 hospitals.

Head and neck cancer is the sixth most common cancer worldwide and includes cancers affecting the mouth, tongue and throat.

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, it is estimated that 8,200 people will be diagnosed with head and neck cancer in Canada in 2026. The society says the majority of the diagnoses will be in men, and around 2,300 people will die from it.