Head & Neck Cancer

From artificial intelligence to a surprise FDA resignation, check out this week’s quick overview of what is making headlines in the cancer space.

The Food and Drug Administration granted a priority review to the supplemental biologics license application for Keytruda (pembrolizumab) for the first-line treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).
 

A recent meta-analysis has found no noticeable difference in immunotherapy’s efficacy based on patient sex.

Survivor diagnosed with second cancer after surgeon spots a lump on her throat while watching TV.

Immunotherapy may lead to a major change in how the treatment of metastatic recurrent head and neck cancer is approached, according to Barbara Burtness, M.D., a professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine.
 

Despite associated toxicities, cisplatin chemotherapy induced superior efficacy compared with a new alternative among patients with HPV-positive oropharyngeal carcinoma.
 

The FDA has granted an accelerated approval to larotrectinib for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with solid tumors that have an NTRK gene fusion without a known acquired resistance mutation, are metastatic or where surgical resection is likely to result in severe morbidity, and have no satisfactory alternative treatments or that have progressed following treatment.

Patients who received chemotherapy, actively smoked and drank alcohol, and were diagnosed with head and neck cancer reported significantly higher rates of opiate use, according to study results presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2018 Palliative and Supportive Care Symposium.

SCOTT WIESKAMP KNEW THE spot on his tonsil wasn’t normal.