platinum-based chemotherapy – Oral Cancer News

Nivolumab Improved Survival For Patients With Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Source: www.aacr.orgAuthor: AACR Newsroom Staff NEW ORLEANS — Treatment with the immunotherapeutic nivolumab (Opdivo) improved survival for patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma that progressed after platinum-based chemotherapy compared with single-agent chemotherapy of the investigator’s choice, according to results from the CheckMate-141 phase III clinical trial presented here at the AACR Annual Meeting 2016, April 16-20. “Recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma that is not responsive to platinum-based chemotherapy progresses very rapidly, and patients have a very poor prognosis,” said Maura L. Gillison, MD, PhD, a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. “Treatment usually involves single-agent chemotherapy. However, no therapy has been shown to improve survival for this patient population. New treatment options are desperately needed. “This study is the first randomized clinical trial to clearly demonstrate improved overall survival for patients with platinum-refractory recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma,” continued Gillison. “We hope that the results will establish nivolumab as a new standard of care option for this patient population and thereby fulfill a huge unmet need.” CheckMate-141 was a randomized, phase III clinical trial designed to determine whether the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab could extend overall survival for patients with platinum-refractory recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma compared with treatment of the investigator’s choice, which was any of the commonly used therapeutics docetaxel, methotrexate, or [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-04-19T10:49:39-07:00April, 2016|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Early postoperative Taxol® may improve outcomes in high-risk head and neck cancer

Source: professional.cancerconsultants.com Author: staff Researchers involved in the RTOG 0024 study have reported that the administration of early adjuvant Taxol® (paclitaxel) followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy may improve local control and improve disease-free survival in patients with high-risk head and neck carcinoma. The details of this study appeared in the Journal of Clinical Oncology early online on August 31, 2009.[1] There have been several randomized and non-randomized clinical trials that suggest that the concomitant administration of platinum-based chemotherapy and radiotherapy (RT) is superior to RT alone for the treatment of patients with advanced head and neck cancer for local and regional control. Most, but not all, have also shown a survival advantage for combined treatment. An intergroup trial with participation of RTOG, ECOG, and SWOG compared post-operative radiotherapy alone or with concurrent Platinol® (cisplatin) for patients with high-risk head and neck cancer. This study showed that the addition of adjuvant Platinol decreased local recurrences but had no significant impact on metastatic disease or overall survival. An EORTC trial showed that the addition of Platinol to RT improved progression-free and overall survival by 10% and improved overall survival by the same degree. The current study (RTOG 0024) sought to improve the results of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy in high-risk head and neck cancer patients by administering Taxol postoperatively on weeks 2, 3, and 4 prior to RT. Taxol and Platinol were administered concomitantly with RT after week 4. This study was compared to the previous RTOG trial 9501, which administered Platinol alone with RT. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-09-13T04:51:10-07:00September, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Planned neck dissection unnecessary in some patients with advanced stage oropharyngeal cancer

Source: www.docguide.com Author: Louise Gagnon The use of a neck dissection is not always necessary in patients with advanced stage oropharyngeal cancer, according to a retrospective study presented here at the 2nd World Congress of the International Academy of Oral Oncology (IAOO). "Our message is that you don't have to do a planned neck dissection," said John Yoo, MD, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, London Health Sciences Centre/University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario. Chemoradiation is now the standard of care in most centres for patients with advanced oropharyngeal cancer, noted Dr. Yoo. "You can follow those patients to see if they relapse or have persistent disease," he explained in an interview on July 10. "You can salvage them if that occurs. The trend is towards not doing a planned neck dissection, but to follow the patients." Patients received external beam irradiation in addition to platinum-based chemotherapy. They were staged pathologically and radiologically. They were reassessed at 6 to 8 weeks after treatment for residual disease. Neck dissections were performed only if clinicians had clinical or radiological evidence of residual disease. Dr. Yoo and colleagues retrospectively analysed 62 patients (49 males, 13 females) treated at the London Regional Cancer Centre between 1999 and 2005. The mean age of patients was 56, and the median follow-up was 32 months. A total of 15 patients were N3 staged, and 47 were N2 stage. Specifically, 18 were stage N2a, another 18 were stage N2b, and 11 were stage N2c. There was a complete [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-07-15T04:11:30-07:00July, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Platinum-based chemotherapy plus cetuximab in head and neck cancer

Source: New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 359:1116-1127, September 11, 2008, Number 11 Authors: Jan B. Vermorken, M.D., Ph.D. et al. Background: Cetuximab is effective in platinum-resistant recurrent or metastatic squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck. We investigated the efficacy of cetuximab plus platinum-based chemotherapy as first-line treatment in patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Methods: We randomly assigned 220 of 442 eligible patients with untreated recurrent or metastatic squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck to receive cisplatin (at a dose of 100 mg per square meter of body-surface area on day 1) or carboplatin (at an area under the curve of 5 mg per milliliter per minute, as a 1-hour intravenous infusion on day 1) plus fluorouracil (at a dose of 1000 mg per square meter per day for 4 days) every 3 weeks for a maximum of 6 cycles and 222 patients to receive the same chemotherapy plus cetuximab (at a dose of 400 mg per square meter initially, as a 2-hour intravenous infusion, then 250 mg per square meter, as a 1-hour intravenous infusion per week) for a maximum of 6 cycles. Patients with stable disease who received chemotherapy plus cetuximab continued to receive cetuximab until disease progression or unacceptable toxic effects, whichever occurred first. Results: Adding cetuximab to platinum-based chemotherapy with fluorouracil (platinum–fluorouracil) significantly prolonged the median overall survival from 7.4 months in the chemotherapy-alone group to 10.1 months in the group that received chemotherapy plus cetuximab (hazard [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-09-11T08:55:37-07:00September, 2008|Oral Cancer News|