Latest news with #JeanBourhis
Medscape
2 days ago
- Business
- Medscape
Adjuvant Nivolumab + CRT Improves DFS in HNSCC
Adding nivolumab (Opdivo) to standard-of-care cisplatin radiotherapy (CRT) after surgery for locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) in patients at a high risk for relapse reduced the risk for recurrence, as per a phase 3 trial. This new therapeutic option 'improved high-risk locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck,' said study author Jean Bourhis, MD, PhD, during a press conference at American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2025. Postoperative nivolumab added to standard-of-care adjuvant CRT 'could be proposed as a new standard treatment for the first time in two decades,' said Bourhis, MD, PhD, of Lausanne University Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland, while reporting results of NIVOPOSTOP (GORTEC 2018-01) during the press conference. Agreeing with Bourhis' characterization of the therapeutic regimen followed in the new trial, Stuart Wong, MD, said NIVOPOSTOP 'represents a potential new standard,' in his comments as discussant of the results at the meeting's Plenary Session. As immunotherapy for head and neck cancers evolve, so must the approach to managing these patients, said Wong, who is director of the Center for Disease Prevention Research at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. 'In a world where neoadjuvant and adjuvant anti–PD-1 [programmed cell death 1] are options for patient care, a multidisciplinary tumor board discussion is optimal and should include individual patient and social factors, as well as consideration of individual tumor growth dynamic,' Wong said. 'The NIVOPOSTOP study presents a major turning point,' he added. 'However, we face many steep obstacles ahead of us, foremost among these the completion of ongoing studies.' Study Design and Results The study enrolled 680 patients aged 75 years or younger with HNSCC who had complete macroscopic surgical resection of stage III or IV cancer. Half the patients were either smokers or heavy smokers, and the most common tumor site was the oral cavity. About 80% of patients had either stage IVA or IVB disease. After surgical resection, patients were randomized to one of the two regimens. The treatment group received one dose of 240 mg nivolumab, followed by a dose of 360 mg nivolumab every 3 weeks plus standard-of-care 100 mg/m2 cisplatin every 3 weeks and 66 grays (Gy) of intensity-modulated RT (IMRT), followed by six doses of 480 mg nivolumab over 4 weeks. The control group received 100 mg/m2 cisplatin every 3 weeks and IMRT 66 Gy. The rate of 3-year disease-free survival in the nivolumab plus CRT group was 63.1% vs 52.5% in the control group ( P = .034), representing a 24% improvement, Bourhis said. The nivolumab plus CRT group also had a 37% reduced risk for cumulative incidence of locoregional relapses alone at 3 years, he added. Compliance rates were similar between both groups. For example, RT compliance rates over 55 days were 95% for nivolumab plus CRT and 97% for CRT. The proportion of patients experiencing more serious side effects in the 100 days following treatment was higher in the nivolumab plus CRT group than in the control group (13.1% vs 5.6%). The most common grade 4 adverse events in both groups were neutropenia and lymphocytopenia. Most treatment-related adverse events were less serious grade 1 or 2 events and were related to chemoradiotherapy in both groups. The nivolumab group had 'a slight increase' in renal toxicity (24% vs 15%) and 'a more pronounced increase' in thyroid disorders (20% vs 2%), Bourhis said. Evidence Is Growing NIVOPOSTOP adds to a body of evidence supporting the use of adjuvant immunotherapy in difficult-to-treat disease, Glenn Hanna, MD, director of the Center for Cancer Therapeutic Innovation at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said at the press conference. He cited results from the KEYNOTE-689 trial, reported in April at American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2025, in which patients with HNSCC were given perioperative neoadjuvant pembrolizumab followed by adjuvant pembrolizumab. 'It brings us into a space where we were with kidney cancers and with melanoma, to say what is the right sequence of immunotherapy?' Hanna said. He noted that NIVOPOSTOP and KEYNOTE-689 both reported similar outcomes. 'So do you give the immunotherapy first, or do we wait and do it in the adjuvant setting?' he said. Based on Bourhis' research, 'they are comparable.' He added, 'I think now immunotherapy will be here and present for our head and neck patients undergoing cancer resection.' NIVOPOSTOP received support from Bristol Myers Squibb and GORTEC. Bourhis reported having financial relationships with AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck Serono, and Merck Sharpe and Dohme. Hanna reported having relationships with Actuate Therapeutics, Bicara Therapeutics, Boxer Capital, Bristol Myers Squibb, Coherus BioSciences, Elevar Therapeutics, Genentech, Greywolf Therapeutics, ImmunityBio, InhibRx, KSQ Therapeutics, Kura Oncology, Merck, Naveris, Nextech Invest, PDS Biotechnology, Regeneron, Remix Therapeutics, Replimune, Secura Bio, and Surface Oncology. Wong reported receiving research funding from Hookipa Pharma, Merck, and Novartis.
The Star
3 days ago
- Health
- The Star
Immunotherapy drugs show major progress in early-stage cancer
SOUTH-EAST ASIA (Bloomberg): Drugs that boost the body's immune system to fight disease are showing promise in treating a variety of cancers in earlier stages, a development primed to expand their use and transform care for stubborn diseases like gastric and colon cancer. Immunotherapy treatments such as Opdivo from Bristol Myers Squibb Co., Imfinzi from AstraZeneca PLC, and Roche Holding AG's Tecentriq have become bestsellers by increasing survival times in a number of advanced cancers. Now the treatments are showing success against early and mid-stage cancers, according to results of large trials being presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago this weekend. One highlight is that the drugs are preventing recurrences in operable tumors that are at high risk of relapsing. "We're learning that immunotherapy may, in fact, be more effective when you have less of a tumor burden,' said Jean Bourhis, an oncologist at Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland, who led a study on patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. "The key is using it earlier.' Treatment for that kind of head and neck cancer hasn't fundamentally changed in two decades. Use of Bristol's Opdivo in the study slashed the recurrence rate by nearly a quarter after three years when used after surgery to help prevent a relapse. This development could impact about 40% of people diagnosed with the disease, Bourhis said. In a study sponsored by AstraZeneca, researchers found that using the firm's Imfinzi drug before and after surgery reduced the odds by 29% over a two-year period that a nasty type of operable gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer would relapse or progress. The development sets the stage for a new global standard of care for such cancers, which are particularly common in Asia, doctors said. Significantly Bolstered In a study on colon cancer, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, oncologists found that adding Roche's Tecentriq to standard chemotherapy used after surgery significantly bolstered the number of patients who were alive and disease free after three years. The finding represents a major advance in the field, the study's lead investigator said, and could help roughly 15% of patients with operable colon cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes. "We have a real potential to cure many of these patients,' the investigator, Mayo Clinic oncologist Frank Sinicrope, said in an interview. For the companies, expanding the use of immune drugs to earlier stage cancers may provide a new source of revenue to an aging group of blockbusters. "This brings a commercial opportunity,' said Susan Galbraith, AstraZeneca's executive vice president for oncology research. The company has discussed with regulators the potential for the drug to get approved for the new use case, she said, declining to go into detail of where those talks stood. Merck & Co.'s immunotherapy Keytruda, which is featured in multiple studies at ASCO, shows how lucrative treating disease early can be. It has become the world's best-selling medicine thanks in part to its use in early cancer. Of the drug's 41 approved uses, nine are now for early-stage disease. Treating cancer early is "where our growth is,' Dean Li, head of research at Merck, said Thursday at an investor conference. "But it's not just economic growth. This is where you can cure patients.' Upending Medicine New immunotherapy results in head and neck cancer are poised to upend decades of medical practice. For patients with an aggressive form of head and neck cancer, the longstanding first-line treatment was to surgically remove the tumor and use chemotherapy and radiation to keep the disease at bay. The Opdivo study showed that adding the drug to the standard of care cut the risk of cancer recurrence three years after treatment by 24%. That finding comes on the heels of a successful head and neck study from Merck's rival Keytruda drug. In a big study presented in April, Keytruda reduced the risk of relapse when it was used both before and after surgery in head and neck patients. That potential new use is now under review by US regulators. In AstraZeneca's study being presented at ASCO, using Imfinzi before and after surgery was able to increase the number of people alive without a recurrence or disease progression after two years to 67.4% from 58.5%. "For patients facing a high risk of relapse, this brings new hope for long-term survival,' said Yelena Y. Janjigian, an oncologist at New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, who was lead investigator on the study. "It is a pretty big deal.' Will Murray, a 52-year-old retired New York police detective, discovered he had a tumor at the junction of his esophagus and stomach in April 2022. It was operable, but he was at high risk of relapse. In an interview, he said the high death rate from this type of cancer terrified him. But Murray received one of the last spots in the AstraZeneca study and got into the immunotherapy arm. His tumor started shrinking even before the surgery. And since the operation, it hasn't come back, although he did suffer thyroid deficiency, a side effect of immune therapy drugs. Murray now has to eat carefully and can't sleep flat due to the stomach operation, but he can mostly live a normal life, including taking long walks and going on trips with his girlfriend. He credits the immunotherapy treatment trial for helping keep his tumors at bay. "It saved my life,' Murray said. --With assistance from Danielle Chaves. -- ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Mint
3 days ago
- Health
- Mint
Immunotherapy Drugs Show Major Progress in Early-Stage Cancer
(Bloomberg) -- Drugs that boost the body's immune system to fight disease are showing promise in treating a variety of cancers in earlier stages, a development primed to expand their use and transform care for stubborn diseases like gastric and colon cancer. Immunotherapy treatments such as Opdivo from Bristol Myers Squibb Co., Imfinzi from AstraZeneca PLC, and Roche Holding AG's Tecentriq have become bestsellers by increasing survival times in a number of advanced cancers. Now the treatments are showing success against early and mid-stage cancers, according to results of large trials being presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago this weekend. One highlight is that the drugs are preventing recurrences in operable tumors that are at high risk of relapsing. 'We're learning that immunotherapy may, in fact, be more effective when you have less of a tumor burden,' said Jean Bourhis, an oncologist at Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland, who led a study on patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. 'The key is using it earlier.' Treatment for that kind of head and neck cancer hasn't fundamentally changed in two decades. Use of Bristol's Opdivo in the study slashed the recurrence rate by nearly a quarter after three years when used after surgery to help prevent a relapse. This development could impact about 40% of people diagnosed with the disease, Bourhis said. In a study sponsored by AstraZeneca, researchers found that using the firm's Imfinzi drug before and after surgery reduced the odds by 29% over a two-year period that a nasty type of operable gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer would relapse or progress. The development sets the stage for a new global standard of care for such cancers, which are particularly common in Asia, doctors said. In a study on colon cancer, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, oncologists found that adding Roche's Tecentriq to standard chemotherapy used after surgery significantly bolstered the number of patients who were alive and disease free after three years. The finding represents a major advance in the field, the study's lead investigator said, and could help roughly 15% of patients with operable colon cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes. 'We have a real potential to cure many of these patients,' the investigator, Mayo Clinic oncologist Frank Sinicrope, said in an interview. For the companies, expanding the use of immune drugs to earlier stage cancers may provide a new source of revenue to an aging group of blockbusters. 'This brings a commercial opportunity,' said Susan Galbraith, AstraZeneca's executive vice president for oncology research. The company has discussed with regulators the potential for the drug to get approved for the new use case, she said, declining to go into detail of where those talks stood. Merck & Co.'s immunotherapy Keytruda, which is featured in multiple studies at ASCO, shows how lucrative treating disease early can be. It has become the world's best-selling medicine thanks in part to its use in early cancer. Of the drug's 41 approved uses, nine are now for early-stage disease. Treating cancer early is 'where our growth is,' Dean Li, head of research at Merck, said Thursday at an investor conference. 'But it's not just economic growth. This is where you can cure patients.' New immunotherapy results in head and neck cancer are poised to upend decades of medical practice. For patients with an aggressive form of head and neck cancer, the longstanding first-line treatment was to surgically remove the tumor and use chemotherapy and radiation to keep the disease at bay. The Opdivo study showed that adding the drug to the standard of care cut the risk of cancer recurrence three years after treatment by 24%. That finding comes on the heels of a successful head and neck study from Merck's rival Keytruda drug. In a big study presented in April, Keytruda reduced the risk of relapse when it was used both before and after surgery in head and neck patients. That potential new use is now under review by US regulators. In AstraZeneca's study being presented at ASCO, using Imfinzi before and after surgery was able to increase the number of people alive without a recurrence or disease progression after two years to 67.4% from 58.5%. 'For patients facing a high risk of relapse, this brings new hope for long-term survival,' said Yelena Y. Janjigian, an oncologist at New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, who was lead investigator on the study. 'It is a pretty big deal.' Will Murray, a 52-year-old retired New York police detective, discovered he had a tumor at the junction of his esophagus and stomach in April 2022. It was operable, but he was at high risk of relapse. In an interview, he said the high death rate from this type of cancer terrified him. But Murray received one of the last spots in the AstraZeneca study and got into the immunotherapy arm. His tumor started shrinking even before the surgery. And since the operation, it hasn't come back, although he did suffer thyroid deficiency, a side effect of immune therapy drugs. Murray now has to eat carefully and can't sleep flat due to the stomach operation, but he can mostly live a normal life, including taking long walks and going on trips with his girlfriend. He credits the immunotherapy treatment trial for helping keep his tumors at bay. 'It saved my life,' Murray said. --With assistance from Danielle Chaves. More stories like this are available on
