Head & Neck Cancer

From tennis star Martina Navratilova’s two cancer diagnoses to First Lady Jill Biden undergoing Mohs surgery to have a suspicious lesion removed and musician deaths, here’s what’s happening in the cancer space this week.

A novel three-drug combination bested standard-of-care regimens for patients with human papillomavirus-related cancers, according to phase 2 study results.

From the singer of “Duran Duran” revealing his stage 4 cancer diagnosis — and missing the band’s induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame because of it — to Barry Corbin’s oral cancer fears, here’s what’s happening in the oncology space this week.

NC410 plus Keytruda will be studied in a phase 1b/2 trial for patients with certain solid cancers that either did not respond to or have not been treated with an immunotherapy agent.

The FDA granted a fast track designation to an investigational drug alone and in combination with Keytruda to treat patients with HPV recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Compared with surgery, active surveillance was just as effective and lowered anxiety levels in patients with low-risk papillary thyroid cancer.

The novel drug PY159 will be studied as a single agent and in combination with Keytruda for patients with certain solid tumors — including ovarian, pancreatic, lung, head and neck, colorectal and breast cancers.

Years ago, the goal of head and neck cancer treatment was strictly focused on a cure. Now, there has been a slight change in approach to improve survival rates while preserving quality of life.

The addition of Keytruda to chemoradiation, followed by maintenance Keytruda, did not lead to a statistically significant event-free survival benefit in patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

The first patient enrolled onto a phase 1 trial has received TCMB07, an investigational drug, for the treatment of cachexia, a severe disorder that may occur in more than half of patients with advanced-stage cancer.

A clinical trial reviewing the safety and efficacy of a treatment regimen of enoblituzumab in combination with either retifanlimab or tebotelimab in patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck has been stopped by the manufacturer of the cancer drugs.

Here is a roundup of cancer treatments that were approved by the FDA in the spring of 2022 that patients may have missed.

Although much has changed in the past two decades, more needs to be done to prepare cancer survivors for what happens after their treatments end.

Avasopasem manganese is the first drug that has been shown to reduce the incidence and severity of chemotherapy-related oral mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer, research showed.

The Food and Drug Administration granted a fast track designation to PDS0101 plus Keytruda for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic HPV16-related head and neck cancer.

Head and neck cancer treatments and the subsequent side effects can be overwhelming for patients and their caregivers due to the impact they have on routine activities, writes a speech-language pathologist at Cancer Treatment Center of America Atlanta. However, the expert notes, there are plenty of specialists who can help improve patient quality of life.

The manufacturers of the drug plan to resubmit the request for the FDA to approve the regimen sometime this summer.

After surviving cancer and the many bad days that come with a diagnosis, voice actor Rob Paulsen noted that he had a newfound sense of empathy that helped him out of some of his darkest days.

When lovers of “Pinky and the Brain,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and other cartoons gathered in voice actor Rob Paulsen’s hospital room, he took particular notice of one exuberant woman with cancer who was extroverted and kind, despite not having long to live.

The Food and Drug Administration plans on reviewing multiple new cancer therapies this spring.

Over the last 20 years, head and neck cancer treatment moved away from aggressive treatments for all patients to a more personalized approach — improving both outcomes and quality of life for patients with the disease.

The rare cancer, known as adenoid cystic carcinoma, is diagnosed in fewer than 1,500 people in the United States each year and is often found in the salivary glands, a part of the body associated with helping a person swallow and digest food.

Aesthetic appearances, according to an expert at the UCSF, are often important for patients following the surgical treatment of cancer. Advancements in this space over the past 20 years have allowed many to patients to look as normal as possible.

The use of PET imaging midway through oropharynx treatment may help identify patients who can de-escalate their radiation without compromising tumor control.

The goal of the phase 2 trial is to study the safety and efficacy of ASP-1929, a photoimmunotherapy with fluorescence imaging, in patients with head and neck or skin cancer.