Dr. Ferris on Potential of Nivolumab in Head and Neck Cancer

Robert Ferris, MD, PhD, vice chair for Clinical Operations, associate director for Translational Research, and coleader of the Cancer Immunology Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, discusses nivolumab's potential as a treatment for patients with head and neck cancer, as reported in the CheckMate-141 study.

Anti—PD-1 has been an exciting target and therapeutic approach since early phase data have been presented the past couple of years, Ferris explains. In the phase III randomized CheckMate-141 trial, patients with head and neck cancer who were cisplatin-refractory were randomized to receive nivolumab or standard chemotherapy.

CheckMate-141 was stopped early due to a positive endpoint of overall survival in the nivolumab arm. This data also adds a fourth modality—immunotherapy—to the treatment landscape of head and neck cancer, Ferris says.

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